Origin and Fate
by Michael2
Summary: Kyle Reese gets caught up in war that started when he was a baby, and finds himself on an unusual journey.-COMPLETE
1. Judgement Day

July 24, 2004  
  
Sergeant Arnold Reese watches as the GMC van stops at the loading bay. Two drivers dressed in U.S. Army uniforms step out; one of them opens the doors to the back.   
  
Captain Manning approaches the soldiers. "Are these the goods?" he asks.  
  
"Yes, sir," says one of the soldiers. "Please sign here."  
  
Captain Manning signs a form attached to the clipboard. He and Sergeant Reese peer inside the van's cargo compartment.   
  
"Okay, let's load these things out!" yells Sergeant Reese. Three Army privates do just that, as they unload the goods from the van.  
  
"Are those it?" asks a gruff man in his late forties.  
  
"Yes, sir," replies Captain Manning. "They are beauties."  
  
"Maybe we'll be taking these to Iraq by next week," muses Sergeant Reese. "Those insurgents won't stand a fucking chance."  
  
These, what Sergeant Reese was referring to, are terminators. These terminators are huge machines, about the size of a large horse. On the top of each terminator is a head with sensors. Two chainguns are mounted on the sides, and there are tank treads for mobility. The whole body is made of stainless steel, and shines like silver-although these men expects them to be painted when they are deployed.   
  
This was not the first time these three men saw terminators. A couple of months ago, they went to Cyber Research Systems, a joint venture between the Department of Defense and a robotics company known as Cyberdyne Systems, based in Edwards Air Force Base in California. Some Air Force general named Brewster was in charge. Anyway, they saw how the terminators performed during a test in the Mojave Desert. Two days ago, they received notice that thirty terminators will be delivered here to Fort Benning in Georgia on Saturday, which is today.   
  
Reese remembers the briefing. These are only the first model of terminators- T-1's. He recalls hearing that Cyber Research Systems is working on a terminator model with articulate hands and legs.  
  
The terminators are loaded into a storage warehouse with the battalion's weapons and equipment. Sergeant Reese keeps count of every terminator-he remembers that each one costs about half a million dollars.   
  
An Army sergeant delivers brochures to each of the men in the battalion commander's staff. "These contain information about the terminators," says Major Hernandez, who is in charge of delivering these terminators to Fort Benning. "it has all the specs plus phone numbers you can call in case you have problems."  
  
Lieutenant Colonel Sisko, the battalion commander, walks over to one of the T-1's. "How do I turn this on?" he asks.   
  
"There's a switch in the back, sir," says Sergeant Reese. He opens a panel in the back, revealing an on-off switch.   
  
"Turn it on, Reese," says the colonel.  
  
"Yes, sir." Reese flips the switch to on, and lights shine on the terminator's head.   
  
The T-1 just sits there.   
  
"Why the hell is it not doing anything?" asks Sisko.  
  
"There is no program running," says Hernandez. "You have to run a program."  
  
Sisko looks at the panel where the power switch is. There does not seem to be anything that can start a program.  
  
"You can only access the terminator's program via a modem," says Hernandez. "I'll have to get the software installed in your computer system."  
  
The four of them enter the battalion headquarters and head to the basement. They enter a room with Cray supercomputers. Army computer technicians stand in front of the terminals.  
  
"I want you to let the major here install the software so we can operate the terminators," says Colonel Sisko.   
  
"We can't, sir," replies one of the technicians, a chief warrant officer.  
  
"You better have a good explanation."  
  
"Sir, we've been having computer problems. We can't access the Internet, nor link up with other military computers. I think it's a worm or a virus."  
  
"You think terrorists sent a virus to crash the military's computers?" asks Sisko.  
  
"I can't rule that out, sir."  
  
"The least we can do is attach the cables to the control modem for the terminators," says Major Hernandez. One of his men remove a small plastic unit with an antenna. "It should connect to the serial ports."  
  
"Do as he says," Sisko says to the technicians.  
  
"What now, sir?" asks Reese.  
  
"We wait until we can get our computers back on line, then we activate a few of these terminators and take them out for a field test."  
  
Sergeant Reese goes to his office in the battalion headquarters and sits behind his desk. The twenty-six-year-old sergeant might as well catch up with his paper work. He figures he will have a lot more paper work when the terminators are activated.   
  
He feels a vibration in his pocket; it is his Motorola cellular phone. He answers this.  
  
"Sergeant Reese speaking," he says.  
  
"Hey Arnold," a female voice says.  
  
Arnold recognizxes the voice as his wife, Linda. "How are you doing?" he asks his wife of one year. "How is Kyle doing?"  
  
"Well, Kyle is here with me at work."  
  
"Work? You mean you're also working on Saturday?"  
  
"There's an emergency at the office," says Linda, who is a computer softwarte technicians. "Something is preventing our computers from accessing the Internet."  
  
"Oh. When will you be home?"  
  
"I don't know. I just hope Kyle can deal with it."  
  
"I might have to work late too."  
  
Arnold Reese looks at the Pentium compiter on his desk. It operates normally, except that it can not access the Internet nor any of the Defense Department networks. Maybe the whole thing is a result of a Microsoft bug. He recalls his wife talking about how inferior Microsoft is.   
  
Resse decides to read through the brochure. It has a lot of technical details about the T-1, and he reads that the terminators are built in a factory in Santa Clara, California. He then puts the brochure in his desk and gets to work.  
  
At 8:45 PM, Sergeant Arnold Reese goes to his on-base home. It is a small home, about the size of a condo, with a small yard in the back. He enters the living room, which has a Sony color television with cable and an Aiwa stereo system. There is a couch and a coffee table with magazines on top.  
  
"Linda," Arnold calls. "Kyle?"  
  
Arnold turns on the television. There is only a series of color bars. He flips through the channels.  
  
"Perfect," he says.   
  
He then hears a car's engine, and then he hears the engine stop. Minutes later, a red-haired woman in a blue blouse and skirt enters, holding an infant boy in her arms.  
  
"I had to work late, honey," says Linda, speaking in a Southern accent. "Not only did I have to search through so many damn lines of code, I had to take care of Kyle here in the process."  
  
"I guess you're too tired to cook," says her husband.  
  
"Well, I had some chicken mcnuggets from McDonald's, and I fed Kyle some Gerber."  
  
"Let's put him to sleep," says Arnold.   
  
After putting Kyle to sleep, Arnold and Linda go to bed. They are not sleepy, and soon they are both aroused, and then their clothes come off and they have sex.  
  
The telephone rings just as Arnold reaches his climax with his wife.  
  
"Perfect timing," he mutters. He picks up the phone. "This had better be good."  
  
"I'm afraid not," says a male voice that Arbnold recognizes as Colonel Sisko. "Come to headquarters immediately."  
  
"You getting called to base?" asks Linda as she sees her husband jump out of bed.   
  
"I'll be back," says Arnold.  
  
Before leaving for headquarters, he stops at the second bedroom. Inside is a wooden crib where Kyle is sleeping.  
  
"See you later," Arnold says to his son.   
  
Sergeant Arnold Reese enters the briefing room where Colonel Sisko and his staff have gathered.  
  
"What is going on, sir?" asks Reese, siutting in a chair.  
  
"I'll tell you when everyone gets here," says the colonel, standing behind a podium.  
  
Three more soldiers arrive, and Sisko looks at everyone in the room.  
  
"I regret to inform you," he says, " that around 9:20 Eastern Time, a massive nuclear attack was launched against the United States."  
  
Reese and most of the people in the room get weak in the knees. For a brief instant they wonder if Sisko was kidding, but then they recall that the colonel is not the kidding type.  
  
"Who was it?" asks Captain Manning. "Was it Al Qaeda?"  
  
"We don't know," says Sisko. "We received word of the attack through our radio. All military forces- what is left of us- are to stand at our posts and await further orders from the chain of command."  
  
"What do we do if there is no chain of command left?" asks an Army lieutenant.  
  
"We wait for further orders," Sisko says sternly."Now we go to our posts."  
  
Sergeant reese goes back to his desk in the battalion's main office. Minutes later, Sisko comes out of his private office.  
  
"We had better get down to the computer room," says the colonel.  
  
Reese, Sisko, and the other staff members go to the computer room where the Crays are located.  
  
"We have access to the network again," says a technician. "Not only that, something called Skynet is connected to our computers."  
  
Reese remembers hearing about Skynet-a digital defense system that would integrate all military functions. He figures the military would bring Skynet on line after a nuclear attack.  
  
"Well, we have access to the Internet again," says Sisko. "We'll soon receive orders from command."  
  
"Something is bugging me, sir," says Reese. "I wonder why the enemy didn't attack Fort Benning."  
  
"What do you mean, Sergeant?" asks Manning.  
  
"Fort Benning is a major military installion in the U.S. It was a primary target for a Soviet nuclear strike. Adn yet, we're all here and alive."  
  
"Let's worry about that later, Sergeant," says Sisko. "In the meantime, it would be prudent to turn on all of the terminators."  
  
"Is it necessary, sir?" asks a lieutenant.  
  
"All of our equipment must be made ready."  
  
And so Sisko and Reese and Manning and some soldiers go to the warehouse where the T-1's are stored. Reese notices the T-1 he had turned on earlier that day; its sensor lights are still on.  
  
Reese and the soldiers then turn on the other terminators, one-by-one. Within minutes, all thirty terminators are activated.   
  
"We still need to install the software," says Reese.  
  
"Then let's get down there...," says Sisko.  
  
Then all of the soldiers in the warehouse hear something. They look and see the T-1's swivel. Some of them move about on their treads.   
  
"How in the world?" asks Sisko.   
  
Then one of the T-1's swivels to face him, and then its chainguns open fire, sending depleted uranium rounds into Sisko's body, leaving nothing but a bloody mess.   
  
The other soldiers, being unarmed, turn and run away. The terminators just mow them down with their chainguns.   
  
It is not long before the entire military population of Fort Benning becomes aware of what happened. Soldiers fire upon the T-1's, and those who survive know that these machines are made to be impervious to their rifles.   
  
Arnold Reese makes it to a telephone, leaving a trail of blood behind. He can still hear automatic fire from the terminators' chainguns. He dials his number, feeling a chill in his body.  
  
"Hello?" Linda asks.  
  
"Linda, it's me, Arnold," says her husband. "You got to get out of here. Take Kyle and get in the car and drive as far away from here as fast as you can.....Please....." Arnold feels himself slipping away from this world, this Universe. "Linda....I love you...."  
  
Arnold falls. Soon the sounds of the chaingun fire seem distant. He realizes that Skynet is behind this, the nuclear attack and the terminator uprising.  
  
His last thought in this world is off Linda and Kyle.  
  
Linda Reese can hear the gunfire, and she knows her husband is right.  
  
Though she knows her husband is dead, she can not grieve now. She must fulfill her husband's last wish, and get as far away from Fort Benning as possible.   
  
She secures her son Kyle in a baby seat and secures the baby seat. Then she gets behind the wheel of her Volvo, and starts the engine. Soon Fort Benning disappears from the rear view mirror. 


	2. Death Furnace

March 13, 2020  
  
History has always been Kyle Reese's favorite subject. His teachers and classmates alike are astonished at his knowledge of historical events and the explanation behind them.   
  
"Thank you, Mr. Reese," says the teacher, Mrs. Bixby. "You may sit down."  
  
Kyle sits down after giving his oral presentation concerning the American Civil War. He always takes the time to study in between the various chores he has to do. Kyle is the sort of person to jump at the chance to travel through time. He would visit Egypt under the pharaohs, Rome under the Caesars.  
  
And he would visit the world his parents grew up in. Before the war with the machines.   
  
From what his mother told him, when she went to school she would sit behind a desk inside a classroom while listening to the lectures. It is a lot different than what Kyle is used to, which is sitting in the bare dirt. There were other things his mother described to him, such as running water and television and telephones and the Internet.   
  
The other students, about eleven of them, give their oral presentations. Then Mrs. Bixby says, "Thank you. Class is dismissed."  
  
Kyle gets up from the small open space where school is taught. He looks around the only home he remembers, a bunch of tents and shacks located in a saddle in the Appalachian Mountains somewhere in Georgia. His mother and the other people in this shanty village came here to hide from the machines.  
  
Not much is known about the machines, only that they invaded after a massive nuclear attack. There is much speculation among him and his classmates as to where the machines came from. Some of them think they come from some other country in the world, while others think they were sent here by aliens from another planet beyond the solar system. Kyle and the others knew there were other villages like this one, scattered across the Appalachians. To the east and west lay machine-occupied territory.   
  
No one in this village knows the fate of humanity beyond the Appalachians. There are rumors that the Navy evacuated some of the people who now live on ships in the open sea, waiting for the chance to strike back at the machines who chased them from their homeland. If such people exist, Kyle is sure they have access to running water and electric lights and some other things his mother spoke about.  
  
He goes to a small shack made of tin sheets. This is where he and his mother, Linda Reese, sleep at night. There are a few possessions his mother had from before the war. The most precious is the photograph of a young man in a United States Army uniform.   
  
Arnold Reese. His father.  
  
His mother told him how she and his father got together. She was a cocktail waitress in a bar, he was a soldier assigned to Fort Benning. They got married and moved around wherever the Army sent Arnold Reese.  
  
That was, until Judgement Day, the day the war with the machines started. Kyle remembers every word of what his mother told him, about how she received a telephone call from her husband asking her to take Kyle and leave Fort Benning. She knew after hanging up the phone that Arnold Reese was dead. She can still remember the gunfire as the soldiers were fighting the machines who were taking over Fort Benning.   
  
"Kyle," a female voice says.   
  
"Hi, Mom," says Kyle, looking at the red-haired woman whom he knows is his mother, Linda Reese.   
  
"How was school today, young man?"  
  
"Fine, Mom. I just gave an oral presentation on the American Civil War."  
  
"Kyle, I need you to fetch some water. I'll start a fire so we can boil it."  
  
"Okay."  
  
Kyle heads for the nearby stream which is the village's water supply. He passes a Georgia Army National Guard soldier brandishing an M-16 automatic rifle. He looks at small plot with grave markers. They contain the graves of those people who died in this forsaken village. The death rate is high, as medical care is almost nonexistent. At least three of those graves are graves of infants.  
  
Maybe those people who evacuated to the open seas will take the fight to the machines, Kyle muses. Until such a thing happens, he and the others in this little mountain village must hold their own.   
  
After a minute's walk, Kyle reaches the clear mountain stream. He takes a tin cup and collects some water from the stream.  
  
"Hey Kyle," says Mark, a fifteen-year-old classmate. "Whatcha up to?"  
  
"Just collecting water," says Kyle. "I have to bring it back to my mom so we can boil it."  
  
"I've been assigned to do game hunting," says Mark, holding up a hunting rifle. "Off I go."  
  
Kyle walks back to the shack where he lives. He sees his mother working on a fire.  
  
He is interrupted with a noise, a loud chopping noise.   
  
"It's a helicopter!" someone shouts.  
  
Kyle had heard of helicopters from his mother and the grown-ups in this village. Maybe someone from the ships at sea have decided to make contact with them. Maybe they come bearing supplies for their village.  
  
Then he hears another sound. It is a strange sound. He looks up and sees a shiny metal obejct, somewhat like a bird.  
  
Then the metal bird opens fire, blasting the village with beams of light.   
  
The machines are attacking.  
  
A bell is sounded as the villagers prepare to face off against the machines. They had prepared for this in drills, even so they are still scared.  
  
"Here!" shouts Linda. Kyle follows his mother. There is an old mine shaft that serves as a shelter for the village. Within minutes, Kyle reaches the mineshaft. It is dark and there is no light. He can hear the sounds of gunfire and explosions as the National Guard unit assigned here fight off the attacking machines.   
  
Then the gunfire ceases. Maybe the danger is over.  
  
Kyle and the others in the mineshaft hear footsteps. Heavy footsteps. They are then bathed in light.  
  
The source of light comes from a flashlight, a flashlight held in the hand of a skeletal-looking machine. The other hand brandishes what appears to be a submachinegun.  
  
"Surrender now," says one of the machines.  
  
................................................................  
  
It is night time. At least it feels like nighttime, since Kyle can not see much of what is outside of the truck, what with being cramped in here with the others from his village.   
  
He can still remember the forced march from the destroyed village down the mountain path to the highway where the trucks are parked. Some of the stragglers were gunned down by the skeletal robots, convincing everyopne else to move faster. They are all packed in the truck as tight as they can and they have been here for the past few hours. Kyle looks at his mother, huddled in the corner. He maintains eye contact with her.  
  
Kyle hears the truck's engine step. "Move out," a voice commands, speaking in some sort of accent. Everyone moves out.  
  
Kyle looks around. It looks like he and the others are inside a camp of some sort, surrounding by a chain link fence topped with barbed wire. There are guard towers with spotlights located at intervals along the fence. He notices signs on the fence warning them of high voltage.   
  
The centerpiece of the complex is a huge brick building. Surrounding the brick building are wooden shacks. There ia this stench that fills the air.  
  
Some more robots come. They are not skeletal-looking robots like the ones that attacked the village, but look like suits of armor, like those European knights used to wear. They instruct the prisoners to go to a wooden building. Above the door is a sign marked "PROCESSING".  
  
Kyle is forced into a line that moves slowly. He reaches a strange-looking device.  
  
"Place your left arm in the hole, wrist down,"says a voice.  
  
Kyle places his arm in a hole in the machine. He feels a burning sensation.  
  
Removing his arm, he fiunds that a series of bars was etched into it, probably by a laser beam.  
  
Kyle is then led to a small shack with a dirt floor, like the shack he lived in. He sees his mother. He notices the series of bars etched into his mother's arm.  
  
It is clear they are now prisoners of the machines.  
  
........................................................  
  
March 17, 2020  
  
Kyle eats the rations the machines gave him. it is almost sunset. There is almost no noise except for whimpering by some of the children and the blaze of a furnace from the brick building.   
  
From what he saw of his surroundings the past four days, he figures this was once a U.S. military base before the machines took over. Some of the people here were from other isolated villages that were captured by the machine army. Their stories were similar to those of the people Kyle lived with; they were survivors who hid in the mountains to flee the machine onslaught until there was nowhere else to flee. In the past four days, at least six people died; the machines took them away.   
  
"All prisoners report to the central clearing," a voice suddenly says. Everyone leaves the shacks they were housed in and enter into a clearing near the brick building housing the furnace.   
  
A squad of three armed robots comes out to greet the hundreds of prisoners now gathered. One by one, the machines take some people from the crowd.   
  
Kyle sees that his mother Linda Reese was chosen. The robots make gestures to the selected prisoners, and then they are marched towards the brick building. He takes one last look at his mother before she disappears from his sight.   
  
"All prisoners not selected for disposal shall return to quarters," says the mechanical-sounding voice.   
  
Kyle shudders upon hearing about disposal. A few minutes later, he knows that the stench has become greater. He goes outside the wooden shack and sees the brick building where the smoke is coming out.  
  
It is the stench of death.  
  
And the smoke contains what remains of his mother.   
  
Shocked, he returns to the shack. He feels a deep tear in his soul. His mother is now dead, marched of to the death furnace.   
  
He looks around, sees faces.  
  
He no longer sees them as individuals.  
  
Their ultimate fate is that furnace.  
  
....................................................  
  
March 21, 2020  
  
Not much has gone on since Linda Reese and about forty prisoners were burned to death in the furnace, aside from the addition of new prisoners. Some of the prisoners talk about what they wished they could do before it is their turn to go to the death furnace. None of the older prisoners talk about what life was like before the war; it would too be painful.  
  
"All prisoners report to the central clearing," a voice suddenly says. Those who are not new here, like Kyle Reese, knows that some prisoners will be selected for disposal.   
  
Once again, three robots armed with rifles greet the crowd under the night sky. They handpick the humans they will take to the death furnace.   
  
A robot touches Kyle with its metal hand. Kyle knows he has been selected to be burned to death. The stench of this place is not just the stench of death; it is the stench oif his future.   
  
"All selected prisoners, come with us," says one of the robots, speaking in that same accent.  
  
Kyle looks at the building where his mother died. He can only imagine what his mother went through as she was overwhelmed by the heat, as her hair caught fire and her flesh began to sizzle. Death in that furnace is going to be his fate.   
  
His foot then stumbles upon a small stone. He then looks at the robot directing the prisoners, and sees the red sensor eye.  
  
He tosses the stone at the robot. He sees the stone fly under the kinetic energy of his toss.  
  
And he sees the stone strike its target.  
  
The robot stumbles about. Kyle finds out he had just blinded the robot. He immedaitely walks forward and grabd the rifle from the robot's hands.   
  
"Get down!" shouts Kyle. He then sprays bullets at the other two robots. Some of the bullets bounce off the armor, and the bullets strike the robots' sensor eyes.   
  
Kyle looks at the crowd. "We have to fight!" he shouts.   
  
Two of the prisoners from the crowd take the rifles from the blinded robots and prepare to face the onslaught.   
  
Suddenly, rapid gunfire can be heard. The robots posted at the watchtowers are now firing on the crowd with the fixed machine guns. The crowd disperses and takes cover.   
  
Kyle crouches to make a small of a profile as possible. He wonders how he thought this would work out. Instead of being burned to death, he will most likely be gunned down.   
  
He hears a vehicle roll in. Perring around a corner, he sees it is an armored ground vehicle. there is a robot on top, behind a fixed machine gun.   
  
It sprays machine gun fire in a wide arc. Then a door opens, and some more robots come out.   
  
Kyle steels his nerves. It is time to go down fighting.   
  
He raises his rifle, aiming it at the robots who are opening fire on the prisoners.  
  
Then he is knocked off his feet by an explosion. He looks and sees one of the watchtowers had been blown up.  
  
He then sees some flashing lights swoop in from the sky. The armored vehicle in the courtyard explodes.   
  
Kyle wonders who called in the air support. Seconds later, he hears the chopping sound he heard days ago when his village was captured. He sees three helicopters. One of them shines a light upon the prison complex, and then lands.  
  
Upon landing, some people come out of the helicopter. Kyle sees that they are humans, dressed in the kind of oufit his father once wore. "Secure the area!" he hears one of the men shout.   
  
Kyle sees three shadowy shapes approach the complex; they are blown out of the sky a second later.   
  
He then sees some more robots approaching, One of the soldiers fire rockets at the robots, blowing them to pieces.  
  
"Get in!" yells a soldier. Kyle gets into one of the helicopters. The helicopter soon becomes packed. Kyle then feels the helicopter ascend. Within minutes the prison where Kyle was held becomes a distant memory.   
  
.........................................................  
  
March 22, 2020  
  
Kyle Reese wakes up and the first thing he notices is that he is lying on a blanket. He sees dozens of other people with him in the room. He notices the room's walls are not made of wood, but steel.   
  
A blond-haired woman enters the room, dressed in some sort of uniform, light blue in color. "You must be exhausted," she says. "Let's have breakfast in the mess hall, shall we?"  
  
Kyle and most of the people in the room agree with the woman, and follow her. After a minute or so of walking through narrow steel corridors, they reach a room with tables and benches.   
  
Breakfast is served, and it is a hot breakfast. A mushy substance is served. Kyle eats it. It is better than what he had back at that prison camp, or even at the Appalachian village.   
  
After finishing his hot breakfast, Kyle notices that he is thirsty. He sees a uniformed man, not much older than he is.  
  
"Excuse me," he says. "Is there water?"  
  
"On that table there," says the uniformed man. "It's that plastic container over there. I do suggest you drink orange juice instead; you don't want to get scurvy or anything."  
  
"Okay," says Kyle. He goes to the table where there are plastic containers. One is marked WATER, and the other is marked ORANGE JUICE. He takes a paper cup and fills it with orange juice.   
  
The orange juice tastes sweet. He does not remember ever drinking orange juice.   
  
Scarcely had Kyle finished his orange juice when some men come in. One of them faces the crowd; a dark-haired man with a moustache.  
  
"Greetings everyone," says the man with the moustache. "Let me introduce myself to you. My name is Lieutenant Commander Jason Willard, United States Navy, commander of this troop transport ship currently floating in the Gulf of Mexico. You have all been rescued from one of Skynet's death camps in Pensacola, Florida."  
  
"We're on a boat?" asks an old lady.  
  
"Yes, ma'am," replies the commander. "Skynet does not have much of a navy, so we're safer here than on dry land."  
  
"What is this Skynet, and what the fuck has been going on?" asks a man.  
  
"Allow me to explain," says Commander Willard. "You are aware of these robots which took over the country. Well, they are controlled by a computer network called Skynet. It was designed by the military about twenty years ago. It was designed to integrate the nation's military defenses. But there was a bug, and it decided to kill all of humanity. It launched a massive nuclear attack against the world's major population centers, and then it built thousands of these robots to exterminate the survivors."  
  
"So it wasn't aliens," Kyle mutters.  
  
"We fought the machines for months before we realized that we could not drive them back," says Willard. "So about fifteen years ago, we retreated into ships.We have been a nation in exile ever since. We've been trying to survive, and rebuild. We knew some of you were left behind, trapped in hostile territory."  
  
"The hell we were," says someone.  
  
"The fact is that we are beginning to strike back against Skynet and the machines. This transport ship is part of the Atlantic Fleet, which is a Navy component of TechCom, an international military command whose mission is to destroy Skynet's ability to wage war. Of course, we who are assigned to TechCom forces prefer to call ourselves the Resistance. Because that is what we do- we resist Skynet's plans to exterminate the human race."  
  
"Where do we go?" asks a young woman. "Do we live on this ship?"  
  
"This ship is only a temporary refuge," says Willard. "There are some countries and city ships which will offer asylum to you. We are waiting for their replies."  
  
"City ships?" asks Reese.  
  
"Some of the people we evacuated all those years ago built cities in transport ships. Pretty impressive, if you ask me."  
  
Commander Willard then leaves the mess hall. Kyle leaves and heads up. After climbing a few flights of stairs, he finds himself on the main deck.  
  
He looks out and sees the blue expanse of the Gulf of Mexico, with no land in sight. He had heard of the oceans, but this is the first time he laid eyes upon it. He looks at the horizon, wondering what destiny has in store for him, and what options he has. 


	3. Basic Training

March 24, 2020  
  
Life has settled into a routine on board the troop transport. The Resistance sent some doctors to the ship to check the the people who were rescued from the Pensacola death camp. Kyle Reese remembers being probed and prodded and injected by the doctors. One of the doctors said it was a vaccination. Kyle felt a bit woozy after receiving vaccinations for every known inoculable disease.   
  
The Resistance also sent some trauma counselors to the ship. And Kyle is seeing one of them right now, a white-haired man dressed in a faded suit.  
  
"hello there," says the trauma counselor. "My name is Dr. Silberman."  
  
"Name's Kyle Reese," says Kyle.  
  
"Kyle Reese?" asks Silberman. The name sounded familiar. "Tell me what happened."  
  
Kyle lies down on the couch. He tells the doctor about growing up in an isolated mountain village, about how the machines invaded and took them to the death camp, about how he saw his mother marched off to the furnace where she and many others were cremated alive, and the stench of death that filled the place.   
  
Dr. Silberman looks at the teenage boy before him. "You resemble a patient of mine I met almost forty years ago," he says.   
  
"I figure you remember what life was like before the war," says Kyle. "You look old enough."  
  
"Why yes. I had completed by residency, and I was a forensic psychiatrist for the LAPD. There was this guy the cops arrested for stalking a young woman. He said he was a soldier from the future and he wanted to protect her from a killer from his time."  
  
"What time did that soldier come from?"  
  
"He said he was from forty years in the future." Dr. Silberman pauses. "My God, that would be this time. What did you say your name was?"  
  
"Kyle Reese."  
  
"His name was Reese. And you look just like him." Dr. Silberman gets up. "He could have been your father or grandfather. Do you know when your father was born?"  
  
"Uh, 1977, I think. That's what my mom told me."  
  
"That was back in '84, it must have been your grandfather."  
  
"Don't know what happened to him. What did you do the day the war started?"  
  
"You seem to ask a lot of questions about me, boy."  
  
"History is a hobby of mine. My mom told me what she was doing the day the war started, how she got a call from my dad who was a soldier and she took me and kept driving."  
  
"I was living in Santa Clarita at the time- it's a town about thirty miles north of L.A. I heard this huge thunder around dinnertime, and it shook my house. Then I heard on the radio that L.A. was hit in a nuclear attack. I packed whatever I could and I drove as far north as I could with what gas I had."  
  
"Interesting," says Kyle.  
  
"Well, Kyle, you session is up."  
  
As Kyle Resse leaves the room, Dr. Silberman takes one more look at the boy. Suddenly, memories of what happened thirty-six years ago surface. He recognizes the voice.  
  
"My God," he mutters. "That's him."  
  
..........................................................  
  
March 28, 2020  
  
The ship's crew makes an announcement at suppertime. Kyle and the others all gather in the ship's mess hall.   
  
"Hello," says a man in a uniform. "I am Ensign Sparks. We received word that Argentina is willing to accept for residency all of the civilians on board ship. Our ship is now heading south. We should reach port in eleven days."  
  
"Finally," says an old man. "We can get off this damn ship."  
  
Almost everyone in the room agrees with the old man. They look forward to the opportunity to settle down and build new lives in Argentina, far away from the machines and far from the memories of the death camp they were all held.  
  
Kyle Reese has other plans for his life. After most of the people leave, he approaches Ensign Sparks.   
  
"I want to join the Resistance," he says.   
  
"Which branch of the service?" asks Sparks.  
  
.......................................................  
  
May 12, 2020  
  
Kyle Reese lies down in his bunk in the cramped space, reading a book. He is fortunate the Navy has provided some forms of entertainment, for living in a transport submarine can become very cramped.  
  
It would be a lot easier to fly to his destination, but Skynet currently has air superiority over most of North America. Although the sub is slower, it is also a lot safer.   
  
"All passengers and crew, prepare for ascent," a voice over the speaker says.   
  
"We're finally here, Reese," says Tony Sutter, a fellow recruit recruited from among the former inmates of the Pensacola death camp.   
  
"We are now in port," says the voice. "Welcome to Juneau, Alaska."  
  
"Here we go," says Tony Sutter. He and Kyle Reese carry their duffel bags and go to the spiral staircase leading to the top hatch. Soon they meet the cold night air.   
  
What greets Kyle is the lights and the buildings. This is a city.  
  
He had heard of cities from the stories his mother told him. The most populated of the cities were destroyed the day the war started, and the rest were abandoned when the machines made their offensive.   
  
But here, there are no obvious signs that the war with the machines reached this place.   
  
"So we're here," says Kyle. "Where do we go?"  
  
His question is answered by a man waving. The man is standing in front of a huge bus. Kyle and the others from the submarine board the bus. Within minutes, the bus leaves the port.   
  
Kyle yawns during the bus ride. It is late at night, and he is very tired. Living for over a week in a submarine can be exhausting; he is glad he is on dry land now.   
  
The lights and buildings of the town is replaced with dark expanse. Kyle can see the outlines of mountains.  
  
Then, after an hour, the bus stops. Kyle sees the shadowy outlines of a few buildings.  
  
"ALL RIGHT YOU CUM-SUCKING MAGGOTS! EVERYONE OFF THIS BUS!" a male voice yells.   
  
Kyle is startled. He sees a huge uniformed man wearing a hat.  
  
"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU SITTING HERE FOR! GET OUT!"  
  
Many of the bus's passengers get out of the bus. Kyle yawns and closes his eyes to get some much needed sleep.  
  
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, BOY?" the man yells at Kyle.  
  
"I haven't had much sleep, man," says Kyle. "I just want to take a little nap here. It's late, and it's not like the bus..."  
  
Kyle is interrupted when he is yanked out of his seat. "I TOLD YOU TO GET OFF THIS BUS, AND YOU WILL GET OFF THIS BUS. YOU UNDERSTAND, RECRUIT."  
  
"Uh, sure," says Kyle. He immediately steps off the bus. He sees everyone else is lined up, so he decides to line up as well.   
  
"I WANT EVERYONE TO STAND AT ATTENTION!" yells the man who greeted the bus passengers. The man approaches Kyle. "WHY AREN;T YOU STANDING AT ATTENTION."  
  
"Hey, man, I'm not sitting down," replies the teenager.  
  
The man straightens Kyle. "YOU STAND WITH YOUR BACK STRAIGHT AND YOUR HEAD UP."  
  
"Okay."  
  
The uniformed man then faces all of the new recruits. "HELLO, RECRUITS. I AM MASTER SERGEANT EDWARDS, UNITED STATES ARMY, CHIEF DRILL INSTRUCTOR FOR THE JUNEAU TRAINING REGIMENT. YOU WILL CALL ME DRILL SERGEANT. NOW, IT IS TIME TO MAKE YOU INTO SOLDIERS." Sergeant Edwards approaches Kyle. "DROP AND GIVE ME TWENTY."  
  
"Twenty what?" asks Kyle as he yawns.  
  
"TWENTY PUSHUPS, YOU DICKHEAD!"  
  
"Okay, man," says Kyle as he gets on all fours.  
  
"Say that again."  
  
Kyle is confused for a moment, and then he remembers. "Yes, drill sergeant!" He then proceeds to do twenty push ups, which takes him about eight minutes."  
  
The other recruits stare at him. "DON'T BE STARING AT THIS RECRUIT HERE!" yells Edwards. "THERE'S PLENTY OF PUSHUPS FOR ALL OF YOU. NOW YOU GO GET OUT OF THOSE RAGS YOU CALL CLOTHES, AND WE GET REAL CLOTHES! FOLLOW ME."  
  
K;ly and the others follow the chief drill instructor into the building. They all line up. After a good thirty minutes or so, Kyle finds himself into a lobby.  
  
"Okay, recruits!" a harsh woman yells. "Men to the left, women to the right. If you're not sure, pull down your pants and I'll tell you where to go."  
  
Kyle proceeds to the left. He sees a bunch of leather chairs.  
  
"Why, hello there," a man says. "Have a seat."  
  
A sheet is placed over Kyle, covering all but his head. then one of the men in the room grabs his hair and cuts it. Soon, Kyle's long, brown locks are snippets on the floor.  
  
That is not the end of it. the barber takes a buzzing device and rubs it against Kyle's scalp.  
  
"You're done," the man says to Kyle. Kyle looks and sees himself in the mirror. His head was just shaved bald!   
  
Next, Kyle goes into a room marked MALE UNIFORMS. A male drill sergeant tells everyone to strip off all of their clothes. Soon the room is full of naked men.   
  
Then each recruit is given clothing wrapped in cellophane. Kyle opens the cellophane and it contains his whole uniform, including socks and underwear.   
  
finally, all the recruits are assembled and rollcall is made. Kyle notices everyone is replying with a shout, so he does just that when Master Sergeant Edwards yells his name out.  
  
Kyle then follows one of the drill sergeants who leads them to this building. It contains rows of beds.  
  
"Lights out!" yells the drill sergeant. Kyle picks one of the beds, a bed much more comfortable than any he has ever slept in, and drifts to sleep within seconds.  
  
.............................................................................  
  
May 13, 2020  
  
"Everybody up!"  
  
Kyle wakes up, still groggy. He looks outside the window. It is still dark.  
  
"The sun isn't even up," he says, yawning.  
  
"THE SUN IS NOT UNDER MY COMMAND, RECRUIT!" yells Sergeant First Class Winter, the drill instructor. "YOU ARE."  
  
Kyle gets the message and stands at attention along with everyone else. His stomach growls and he wonders if they are having breakfast now.  
  
"EVERYONE FALL IN!" yells the drill instructor. Kyle and the others follow Sergeant Winter, expecting to be led to the mess hall for breakfast.   
  
Instead, they start running more laps than they can count, and then they do push-ups and sit-ups. It is a long time before they have breakfast.   
  
.............................................................................  
  
June 3, 2020  
  
Kyle Reese sits in the auditorium along with the rest of the recruits- all of them. He has learned a lot in the past four weeks of basic training. In addition to daily physical training, he ran an obstacle course, shot rifles, thrown hand grenades, even took a whiff of tear gas. He still has vivid memories of that burning sensation. He also learned military customs and traditions and studied battle tactics. Each Sunday there were religious services held by the chaplains. And of course, Kyle did his share of KP.   
  
Master Sergeant Edwards stands behind the podium. He faces all of the recruits in the room.  
  
"Good morning, recruits," he says to the recuits.  
  
"Good morning, Master Sergeant," all of the recruits say.   
  
"Today you will be briefed on the enemy that you will all fight," says the chief drill instructor. "And who-or should I say what-is better to brief us than a defector. Send the thing in."  
  
Kyle sees a figure walking to the podium. He recognizes it, for it looks like the robots that were operating the Pensacola death camp. Kyle notices the sole sensor eye in the robot's head.  
  
Edwards faces the metal figure. "Tell everyone in this room what you are."  
  
"I am a terminator, Cyberdyne Systems Model 085, Series 400," says a voice coming from the robot's speaker. Kyle notices the accent. "My current mission is to brief the recruits on Skynet and its military assets under the direction of the Juneau Training Regiment."  
  
Soldiers pass small booklets to the recruits. Kyle reads through it.   
  
"I was constructed in the Cyberdyne Systems factory in Santa Clara, California," says the T-400. "My original purpose was to conduct infantry combat operations under Skynet's control. I was captured in battle in the Canadian province of British Columbia. My wireless modem was removed and I was reprogrammed to serve the Resistance."  
  
"Tell us about Skynet and its forces," says Edwards.  
  
"Skynet is a battlefield management system which operates over a computer network," says the terminator. "All combat and support units and facilities are connected to each other through wireless modems. Satellites relay data between Skynet's machines."  
  
"Those brochures should give you all the latest intel the Resistance has gathered."  
  
Kyle looks through the booklet. He reads about the various models of terminators. He look at illustrations of the T-400, the bulky terminators that operated the Pensacola death camp. He reads about the T-500, which looks like the T-400 except that it is less bulky. And he reads about the T-600, which look like steel skeletons. The T-600's were the ones who captured him and his mother and brought them to Pensacola.  
  
He reads more about the Hunter-Killers, or HK's, which provide close air support for the infantry. HK's looks like steel birds-Kyle had seen these in the attack against his village earlier this year. He reads about the armor units and combat aircraft. He reads that all Skynet forces are connected via wireless modem, just as the T-400 had said.   
  
............................  
  
After the briefing with the terminator, Kyle sits in the mess hall having dinner. Unlike most dinners, this dinner is the second meal of the day; the Army refers to the third meal as supper. Dinner consists of chicken and rice.   
  
"I didn't know we had those things on our side," says Lance Houser, whom Kyle knew from the Pensacola death camp.  
  
"At least we can use them as cannon fodder," says Kyle.   
  
"what makes you think they won't turn on us?" asks Tony Sutter.   
  
"I'm sure they have safeguards," says Houser.  
  
"I bet Skynet's creators said the same thing." Sutter takes a sip of his water.   
  
...............................................  
  
June 15, 2020  
  
The morning horn blows, and Kyle Reese wakes up.   
  
"All right, men!" shouts Sergeant Winter. "Today is the big day."  
  
"Our last day of basic training?" asks Lance Houser.   
  
"No, smartass. Today we go on a forty-eight hour hike! Pack your shit, we leave right now."  
  
Within minutes, Kyle packs his things into a bag. He had heard about this upcoming march, and his drill instructors kept telling him and his company how hard it would be.  
  
Of course, he had not appreciated how hard it would be-until he was hiking up a steep mountain trail with one hundred pounds of gear, just as the sun was peeking above the horizon.   
  
Master Sergeant Edwards was leading all of the recruits- the men and the women. Kyle notices that Edwards seems to be enjoying this too much.   
  
Sometime in the midafternoon, Sergeant Edwards announces it is time for dinner. Kyle and most of the recruits open their rations.  
  
"Ahem," says Edwards. "We rely on our rations as a last resort. Look around you. This is Alaska, ladies and gentlemen. There is plenty of game for us to hunt."  
  
"We have to hunt for food?" asks a recruit.  
  
"It's no big deal," says Kyle. "I used to live in a village in the mountains; hunting is where we got our meat."  
  
"I grew up in the city-ship Metropolis. Maybe I should've joined the Navy."  
  
And so the recruits hunt and forage for their food. Needless to say, they did not eat much.  
  
Kyle goes to sleep in a sleeping bag. Conditions are truly more primitive than they were in the mountain village.   
  
.....................................................  
  
June 17, 2020  
  
Kyle Reese is real sore by the time he wakes up this morning. His whole body feels sore. He gets up and stretches his tired arms.   
  
"All right, you people!" yells Sergeant Edwards. "Let's head back!"  
  
And so they begin their trek back to the barracks. The descent from the mountain is even harder than the ascent, due to their tired bodies. Kyle notices that even Edwards shows signs of fatigue.  
  
It seems like an eternity before they catch sight of the barracks and mess hall and the regiment's headquarters.   
  
"I suppose it won't hurt for you to have a little R & R," says Edwards. And soon the recruits are sleeping or at least resting, trying to recover their strength from a fourty-eight plus hours camping trip. Kyle is asleep only seconds after he closes his eyes.  
  
Kyle is awakened by a loud siren. He recognizes this, for he heard this siren, once before.  
  
It is the air raid siren.   
  
"All right, people!" yells Sergeant Winter. "This is the real thing."  
  
"The real thing?" asks Houser.  
  
Sergeant Winter leads his recruits outside. They all hear the message, "This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill." Kyle wonders when the enemy planes will reach Juneau.  
  
His question is answered by a loud thunder. The recruits get down. Kyle looks up and sees planes flying overhead at incredible speed.  
  
"We'd better get to the shelter, people!" yells Winter. "Let the Air Force take care of the enemy planes."  
  
As the recruits make their way to the base's bomb shelters, Kyle glances up and sees explosions in the sky. He wonders if those are Skynet's planes being blown out of the sky-or their own.   
  
Just a few yards before they reach the bomb shelter, the air raid siren stops. For a moment they wonder if the power supply to the siren was cut off by one of the bombs.  
  
"Attention, everyone," says a voice. "Air raid warning is over. The enemy attack has been repelled by our fighters."  
  
Sergeant Winter does a head count of his company. Everyone is okay.   
  
Kyle looks around and sees that the regiment headquarters building is on fire. He immediately rushes over there.  
  
"Anyone in there?" Kyle asks a soldier.  
  
"I don't know," replies the soldier.   
  
Klye takes a look around. He peers into one of the burning rooms.   
  
He sees a man trapped under a filing cabinet. Instinctively, he grabs a shovel from a toolshed and then shatters the window. He leaps into the room, coughing as the smoke enters his lungs.  
  
With all of his might, he lifts the filing cabinet and frees the trapped man. He then goes out of the window.   
  
He listens for respiration, and there is none, so he begins artificial respiration which he learned from a basic training class on emergency medical care.  
  
The man coughs. Only now does Kyle Reese take a closer look. The man he had rescued is none other than the chief drill instrcutor, Master Sergeant Edwards!   
  
"What is going on here?" asks the regiment commander.  
  
"The sergeant here was trapped, sir," replies Kyle. "I got him out.  
  
............................................  
  
June 19, 2020  
  
Today is graduation day for the recruits, as they become privates in the United States Army. Kyle Reese stands tall with the rest of his company, dressed in an Army dress uniform. Sergeant Winter examines each of his recruits, most of whom will be assigned to the Resistance.   
  
They all march, with the company commander carrying the flag. Then all of the recruits face in the same direction.  
  
They see the regiment commander and Master Sergeant Edwards, whose left leg is in a cast. Edwards stands behind the podium and speaks into the microphone.  
  
"Recruits," he says. "the past six weeks have been a harrowing experience. I and the other drill instructors saw you evolve into soldiers. I observe the same evolution I saw in myself twenty-four years ago when I went through basic training.  
  
"I know that these times are trying times, times of crisis. We have done our best and beyond to prepare you for the hardships of your duties. Just remember that you follow in the footsteps of those who came before you, who served in their own times of crisis. It is through our strength that we shall overcome the enemy, and whatever awaits us ahead."  
  
Then each and every recruit greets the regiment commander. When Kyle comes up, he salutes and then shakes handsa with the regiment commander and Sergeant Edwards.   
  
It is over. Basic training has been completed. Now almost all of these new privates will join the fight against the machines.   
  
"Excuse me, are you Private Reese?" a man asks.  
  
Kyle looks and sees a man in an Army uniform, with the rank insignia of a first lieutenant. His nametag identifies him as Van Owen. He notices the lieutenant has two companions.  
  
One of them is an Army corporal with black hair and a moustache. The other was a T-500 terminator, shaped like a suit of armor. Kyle notices the reaction of the recruits who caught sight of the T-500.   
  
"Yes, sir, I am Private Kyle Reese," he says, giving the lieutenant a salute.  
  
"I am Lieutenant Van Owen from Crystal Peak," says the officer. "You are ordered to come with us to Crystal Peak."  
  
"And why did you bring this tin can here with you?" asks Reese.  
  
"I was sent here by the Resistance to ensure your survival," says the terminator.   
  
"Why would they send a terminator to escort me?" asks the new private.  
  
"The orders come from the general himself," says Van Owen.  
  
"What is this Crystal Peak anyway?"  
  
"Crystal Peak is the headquarters for TechCom, the Resistance," says the T-500 in a flat, monotone accented voice. 


	4. Crystal Peak

June 19, 2020  
  
Private Kyle Reese opens his eyes and looks out of the Humvee into the surrounding darkness.  
  
"Are we there yet?" asks the private.  
  
"No, we are not," says Lieutenant Van Owen. "And we won't be there for quite a while."  
  
"We could have taken a plane."  
  
"A plane would be too risky," says the T-500 sitting in the back seat with Kyle. "Going by road would give us the best chance of successful completion of my mission."  
  
"That's right," says the Army corporal driving the Humvee. "Skynet does not control the mountains. Crystal Peak is our stronghold in the continental U.S."  
  
The Humvee slows down; ahead is a checkpoint. there is a sign warning both men and machines of land mines. Two soldiers step out, brandishing AK-47 assault rifles.  
  
"Papers please," demands a soldier.  
  
Van Owen presents his ID, and one of the soldiers make a call. Then the soldier goes to the lieutenant. "You may pass," he says.  
  
The Humvee continues southbound on U.S. Highway 395. After another hour of driving, the Humvee enters a dirt road. A few yards ahead is a tunnel entrance. Soldiers manning fixed machine guns stand on either side.   
  
The Humvee enters the tunnel and the driver shuts off the engine.  
  
"Welcome to Crystal Peak," says :Lieutenant Van Owen.  
  
Kyle ghets his duffel bag out. "Where are we going?" he asks.  
  
"Well, let's get you some breakfast first, and we'll check you into guest quarters. The general wishes to see you."  
  
Kyle gets inside an elevator with the lieutenant and the T-500. A few seconds later, the elevator comes to a stop.  
  
Kyle goes out into the hallway. The floors are concrete, and pipes run overhead. He sees men and women in uniform walking through the hallway. He notices that not all of them are Americans- he recognizes the flag emblems on the uniforms.   
  
After a breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast and orange juice, the T-500 shows Kyle Reese to his quarters. It is a small, closet-sized room with a bed and a desk with a lamp on it. He decides to take a nap. After all, he had completed a five-day trip through the mountains of North America.   
  
His sleep is interrupted by the T-500. "It is time," it says.   
  
Kyle follows the terminator to an elevator which goes down further. He exists the elevator, passing some guards. They go through a pair of double doors.   
  
A woman in an Army uniform with sergeant's stripes sits behind a desk. "Oh, it is you," she says to the terminator. She then asks Kyle, "What is your name?"  
  
"Private Kyle Reese," he says.  
  
"Come on in."  
  
Kyle follows the T-500 to the private office beyond the secretary's office. The office is huge. A huge wooden desk sits in the center. File cabinets stand against the back of the wall. A map of the United States hangs on the right wall. Two falgs- one of them the American flag- hang from staffs behind the desk.   
  
Behind the desk sits a man in his mid-thirties in an Army uniform; his four stars indicates that he is a general. Brown hair covers his head, and there is a serious look to him. Kyle stands at attention and salutes.  
  
"My mission is complete," says the T-500. "I shall now go to Terminator Control."  
  
"Private Kyle Reese, reporting as ordered, sir," he says.  
  
The man stands and returns his salute. "I am General John Connor, United States Army, supreme allied commander of TechCom. Have a seat, Private."  
  
"Yes, sir," says Kyle, sitting on a leather chair.  
  
"Tell me about yourself, Reese."  
  
"Well, I was born in an Army hospital in Georgia on October 7, 2003. My mother took me and fled Fort Benning the day the war started. I grew up in the mountains in Georgia before the machines came and took me and my mother and neighbors. They had this furnace, and they would take some of us and one day they took my mother and burned her to death."  
  
"I'm sorry. So why did you join the Army?"  
  
"I wanted to fight the machines. I didn't want to hide in Argentina like the others who were rescued. I knew that it was only through people like you and me that Skynet is not in Argentina."  
  
"Do you have any hobbies?" asks the general.  
  
"Yeah, I do. I like history."  
  
"History?" Connor raises an eyebrow.  
  
"In the village I lived in, they taught us with books they managed to salvage. I liked history. I liked to hear how people once lived, about the tragedies they endured and the triumphs they accomplish. You know, sometimes I wish I could visit those past eras, observe what our ancestors went through."  
  
General Connor pauses upon hearing this. "Maybe you'll get the chance someday."  
  
"If I may ask, sir, what did you do the day the war started?"  
  
"Well, Reese, on that day- Judgement Day- the woman whom I would later marry brought me to visit her father in Edwards Air Force Base. He was the Air Force general who created Skynet."  
  
"Let me get this straight, sir. You hooked up with this girl, and her father happened to be Skynet's creator?"  
  
"Yes. Skynet went online that day, and then it turned on its creators. The T-1's - the first generation of terminators- killed the research staff. The general was mortally wounded, and he told us to flee to Crystal Peak, which was a fallout shelter for VIP's. Kate and I managed to get here. And then it happened."  
  
"What?"  
  
"We heard voices over the radio. We heard reports of massive explosions. Skynet had apparently turned the American nuclear arsenal on the whole world. Over a billion people died in those thirty minutes."  
  
"I can't imagine how you felt."  
  
Connor continues with his story. "Here I was, in an unoccupied bomb shelter, with the whole world outside falling apart. I knew how this whole thing happened, so I took the microphone and I warned as many people as I could about Skynet and its plans to exterminate all of us. I made contact with the remnants of the U.S. military, and we formed the core of the Resistance."  
  
"So you became the leader of the Resistance all because you happened to be with a girl whose dad created Skynet and you came to visit the day Skynet went online."  
  
"Yes. It was destiny."  
  
"You believe in destiny, sir?"  
  
"Sometimes."  
  
General Connor stands up and paces around the office. "It took a while to get the U.S. military, let alone the world, to accept my leadership in the war. A few months after Judgement Day, the U.S. military got the idea that if they bombed Edwards, they could shut Skynet down."  
  
"It makes sense," says Kyle. "Skynet's computers would be located there, if Skynet was born there."  
  
"I told them it would be futile, but the Air Force gathered what bombers it had and launched a massive bombing raid against Edwards. The whole base was reduced to rubble, but tghat didn't stop Skynet. Skynet had spread its program to millions of computers across the nation. Bombing Edwards only resulted in the deaths of six American pilots.  
  
"But we endured, Kyle. The military came to trust my expertise. It was my idea for the Navy to evacauate the civilian population once the machines began their conquest. We then dug in our heels and fought the machines, keeping them from taking any more territory. It was a long and bloody struggle. Later on, the nations of the world formed an alliance to defeat Skynet once and for all, and they unanimously chose me to be the supreme allied commander."  
  
"So why did you choose this place as your headquarters? I mean, you could have your headquarters in Alaska or Hawaii or some place far from Skynet's bases."  
  
"Crystal Peak is our stronghold in the United States, and it was where I fiurst sought refuge. Three times Skynet tried to take Crystal Peak, and three times it failed. Now I want to tell you a bit about myself, Kyle. I was born in February 14, 1985. My father died before I was born. My mother is Sarah Connor. She taught me to be strong."  
  
"Did she survive the war?" asks Kyle.  
  
"My mom died of leukemia in 1997," says Connor. "She fought the cancer for three years. In a way, I too am fighting a cancer- the cancer of Skynet and its machines. I will prevail over this cancer. It was recently that we started going on the offensive. For sixteen years, we fought to keep Skynet from spreading. Now we can strike back." General Connor reaches into his coat pocket and takes something out. He gives it to Kyle.  
  
Kyle sees a photograph of a woman with blond hair, wearing sunglasses. "Who is this?" he asks.  
  
"That is my mother, Sarah Connor. It was taken in 1984- almost forty years ago."  
  
"I can't take this, sir."  
  
"Don't worry about it. I believe there are great things for you. You are dismissed, Private."  
  
Kyle stands up and faces the general, and then leaves the office. He finds his way back to his guest quarters.   
  
He studies the picture further. Sarah Connor seems to have a sadness hidden behind the dark lenses of her sunglasses. And yet, she radiates strength.  
  
Kyle can understand why General Connor would hold on to this picture for over thirty years.  
  
And yet he does not understand why he, a private fresh out of basic traning, had been given this picture.  
  
........................................  
  
June 23, 2020  
  
Private Kyle Reese is once again summoned to the office of General John Connor. He had been in Crystal Peak for four days. He had not been assigned to any post. Mostly, he had been studying in the library and watching old movies on DVD. He remembers seeing a framed newspaper page with the headline "WAR NUCLEAR BOMBS DROPPED ON U.S. SOIL DEATH TOLL ESTIMATED TO BE IN MILLIONS".   
  
"Private, I have decided on what you will be doing for your career," says Connor. "Great things await you, Kyle. But you can not prepare for these things by being a paper pusher in Crystal Peak. So I am going to assign you to the field."  
  
"Where?" asks the private.  
  
"You will be assigned to an outpost deep in enemy territory. I will not lie-it will be difficult. It is a very important job, for we do not have the same surveillance capabilities that Skynet has, and some of our intel can only be gathered by scouts deep in enemy territory. And these advanced scouts have done well for us. They were the ones who identified the T-600's. I believe you can do this. I have faith in you."  
  
"Thank you, sir." Kyle hands Connor the photograph given to him days ago.  
  
"Keep it," says Connor. "That's an order."  
  
"Yes, sir." 


	5. Behind Enemy Lines

June 23, 2020  
  
Once again, Private Kyle Reese sits in the passenger seat of a Humvee as it drives down a windy mountain road. Once again, a T-500 terminator escorts Kyle, with the mission to protect the teenage soldier. The T-500 is driving, with the headlights off to prevent detection from HK patrols.   
  
Kyle looks at the terminator driving the Humvee and wonders why General Connor would send a terminator to protect him. Even though he had only been in the Army for a month, he knows terminator escorts are not standard procedures for transporting Army privates to their posts.   
  
"Did people have to go through all this trouble just to drive to the city?" asks Kyle.  
  
"The main freeways leading in are heavily patrolled by Skynet's forces," replies the T-500. "It is better to use these back roads."  
  
"Can you see without the headlights on?"  
  
"Night vision is standard in the T-500 model."  
  
After another hour of driving, Kyle can see the outline of buildings. "Is this it?" he asks.  
  
"This is the city of La Canada Flintridge," says the T-500. "We are only a few miles from our destination."  
  
Kyle looks around. The buildings are triangular in shape; some of them had burned down.   
  
Kyle notices a road sign marking the entrance to the Foothill Freeway. The terminator passes the freeway on ramp.  
  
"I guess we're not using the freeway," says Kyle.  
  
"I have a road map of Los Angeles County stored in my database," says the T-500. "The road map should be accurate until we get within ten miles of ground zero."  
  
The next few minutes are spent driving down the side streets. Kyle notices the buildings are mostly in one piece, though daylight may show they would be in need of repair.   
  
Kyle suddenly notiuces the ride becomes a lot more bumpy, so bumpy that he is shaken every second. He looks out and sees no buildings standing.   
  
The Humvee stops a few minutes after entering the ruins. "We should be here," says the T-500.   
  
"I wonder why they chose these ruins to be their hideout," says Kyle.  
  
"These ruins are a perfect cover," says the T-500. "Skynet does not anticipate a Resistance outpost in the ruins here. This area is one of Skynet's largest strongholds in North America."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Because of the wide urban sprawl on Judgement Day, the bomb only destroyed the area ten miles out of downtown Los Angeles. The fallout forced an evacuation of Los Angeles County, and Skynet was able to establish a foothold here with little resistance. With the infrastructure mostly intact, it was able to build huge facilities to manufacture terminators and hunter-killers. The entrance is here."  
  
Kyle sees it; a stairwell leading down to a door.   
  
"My mission will be complete as soon as I confirm your arrival at the outpost," says the T-500.   
  
"You should come with us," says Kyle.  
  
"Negative. Their reaction would be to attack me. Take the supplies and get down there. I shall now return to Crystal Peak."  
  
Kyle descends the stairs even as he hears the Humvee's engine start. He knocks on the door.  
  
"Password," says a male voice.  
  
Kyle gives him the password. The heavy steel door opens.   
  
Kyle is greeted with two men brandishing AK-47's. One of them pinches his face.  
  
"We heard reports of T-600 infilatrators," says one of the soldiers. "They have rubber skin so they look like humans from a distance or in dim light. I am Sergeant Baker, by the way."  
  
"Private Reese."  
  
"So you're the new guy Crystal Peak's sent us," says a man in his twenties. "I am Major Paul Bratt, commander of the Los Angeles outpost. Welcome to downtown Los Angeles."  
  
"I am reporting for duty, sir," says Kyle, giving the major a salute.   
  
"Major, the private here got us supplies- ammo and rations."  
  
"Okay," says the major.  
  
"What is our mission here, sir?" asks Kyle.  
  
"We keep an eye on Skynet's activities in L.A.," says Bratt. "We conduct sabotage and raids upon receiving orders from Crystal Peak. This is a very difficult, and very important assignment. Let me show you."  
  
Bratt takes Kyle to a small room. In the room is a wall-mounted map of Los Angeles County.  
  
"Everything between the mountains and the sea is enemy territory," says Bratt. "We can't go out in the daytime; we'd be spotted by the HK's. Skynet's main base in this county is in Azusa." Bratt places his finger on the map to point the location to Kyle. "It's about thirty miles from here. A dam in the San Gabriel River provides electric power for Azusa Base as well as all of Skynet's facilities in the county."  
  
"I'm surprised the Air Force didn't take out Azusa Base."  
  
"They tried. Skynet has tight air defenses here. Headquarters can't even fly a Predator drone over here. Skynet's fighters are based here, in the Joint Forces Training Center in Los Alamitos, and here, at the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. Laser batteries located throughout the area provide defense from cruise missiles."  
  
"I guess we don't have a plan to take out Skynet's air defenses."  
  
"We struck some of their factories, and we took out the shipyard in Terminal Island, preventing Skynet from building a fleet of warships to take on the Resistance's Pacific Fleet. To take out the air defenses, let alone Azusa Base, would require more men. Hell, it would require tanks and artillery and air support."  
  
"So now what?" asks the private.  
  
"You, Reese, will go to sleep. We have work to do tomorrow!"  
  
Klye takes on look at the map. He sees spots marking the location of Azusa Base and the known Skynet outposts. He then goes to the sleeping area. At least a dozen men bunk here. Kyle lies down on a cot.  
  
He takes ouit the photograph and looks at the picture of Sarah Connor. He wonders what that woman was like. She had raised her son, John, by herself. Taught him everything he knows. She must have been a great mother if her son was chosen to lead the war against Skynet.  
  
Kyle drifts to sleep, thinking of Sarah Connor.  
  
...................................  
  
June 24, 2020  
  
"Rise and shine, everyone!" yells Sergeant Baker. Kyle gets up.  
  
"What's for breakfast?" asks Kyle.   
  
"We're gonna have to hunt for our breakfast."  
  
Kyle remembers that last week of basic training, where he and the other recruits went on a long hike through the mountains of Alaska. He remembers the drill instructors telling the recruits to hunt for their meals. "Are we going topside to hunt?" asks the private. "I mean, we're not exactly in a wilderness."  
  
"there's life in these tunnels," says Baker. "Put on the night vision goggles."  
  
Baker leads Kyle and his men through the tunnels whiuch go underneath downtown Los Angeles. "During the day, we patrol these tunnels," says the Army sergeant. "We've spotted terminators in these tunnels; we destroy them ebfore they can find our hideout. Like that guy."  
  
Kyle looks where Baker is pointing and sees a skull, the remains of a T-600.  
  
"Look at the ground and listen carefully," says Baker. Kyle and the other soldiers do so.   
  
Kyle hears tiny footsteps. He looks at the ground and sees little green shapes. "I see something on the ground," he says.  
  
"Get one."  
  
Kyle tries to catch one of the green shapes, and he fails.   
  
"Got one," one of the soldiers say.  
  
"I got another one," says another soldier.  
  
"Let's head back to post," says Baker.   
  
Minutes later, Kyle eats his breakfast. He has not had rat before.   
  
...............................................  
  
October 6, 2020  
  
Private Kyle Reese sits down on the ground as he attends a briefing by Major Bratt. He had gotten to know the twenty-plus people stationed in this outpost, which is a far cry from the thousands stationed at Crystal Peak. His duties include maintainijng the place during the day, listening to radio messages from Crystal Peak or other bases, and scouting the area at night. He actually had more than one run in with a terminator patrol. Fortunately, he was able to dispatch the terminators and get away before Skynet could track his position.   
  
"As you know, we're almost out of rations and we aren;t getti9ng that much meat from the vermin population," says the major. "We haven't received word of a supply drop. We're gonna have to ask Crystal Peak for a supply drop. I'm going to make a report and include in it a request for rations and ammunition. Corporal Harland and Private Reese shall be the ones to deliver the message."  
  
"Yes, sir," says Corporal Joanna Harland.  
  
"I won't let you down, sir," says Kyle.  
  
Kyle knows what this means. There is no real-time radio communication between the outpost and the outside world. Outgoing transmissions are sent far from the outpost, to conceal its location from Skynet.   
  
"Get ready for your mission tonight," says Bratt.  
  
.................................  
  
It is almost time for the mission, and Kyle and Harland prepare for their excursion to the surface. Kyle looks at the tall woman with blond hair, who does not appear to be much older than he is.  
  
"Do you remember Judgement Day?" he asks, loading his AK-47 assault rifle.   
  
"I remember my mom and dad taking me from my home when I was little," says the corporal. "I remember living in tent camps. And I remember going to a boat."  
  
"You weren;t that old at the time."  
  
"I was three. Old enough to remember that my life was changing. I slowly understood the reasons hwy I ended on on the ship. If you want to know, I joined because I wanted to take the fight to Skynet, and not Skynet take the fight to my parents' ship."  
  
"Well," says Sergeant Baker, "It's time for you to deliver the message before we starve to death here."  
  
Kyle and Harland leave through one of the heavy doors and walk through a tunnel. the tunnel is dark, and they can only see via their night-vision glasses. They both have come to know the system of tunnels that run underneath the streets of Los Angeles. Someday, they know, the Resistance will come here in full force. Until then, they are its eyes and ears here.   
  
They reach a ladder, and Corporal Harland climbs up. "Hold the ladder," she says. Kyle stays down while Harland peeks above.  
  
She looks around and sees the scenery of blasted buoldings. They had not walked far from the outpost; they are still close to ground zero. She activates the radio and presses a button to send the prerecorded message to Crystal Peak. She then closes the manhole cover and climbs down.  
  
"Were you spotted?" asks Kyle.  
  
"I don't think so," replies Harland. "Didn't hear any HK's hovering nearby. We should stay here for a few minutes, to see if any terminators come."  
  
They wait for a few minutes. No one, man or machine, enters through the manhole.  
  
"Let's head back to base," says the corporal.  
  
.........................................  
  
October 7, 2020  
  
"Well, today's my birthday," Kyle says to his fellow soldiers in the briefing room. "Today I'm seventeen."  
  
"Too bad there's no birthday cake for you," says Private Weatherly.   
  
"That's our life," says Private Venitez.  
  
"I guess we continue on as usual."  
  
And so they do, maintaining the place. Rations have been cut to bare bones. They are all very hungry. Kyle never had a birthday cake ever. He would love just to have rations.  
  
"We're getting a transmission," says Corporal Cahill, looking at the computer attached to the radio. The computer records audio transmissions. Kyle once asked if Skynet could break into the computer; Cahill replied that the radio only translates into sound; it is not a wireless modem. Cahill then plays the recording.   
  
It is nothing but garbled sounds.  
  
"Was there interference?" asks Major Bratt.  
  
"I don't know, sir," replies Cahill. "We might have to....wait, I forgot to use to decrypter. I only hope Crystal Peak used the right encryption algorithm." The encryption algorithm Crystal Peak uses for encryption depends on its destination and the date.  
  
The the message plays. "This is Lieutenant Miller from Crystal Peak," says a female voice. "The U.S.S. California will be sending you a care package at 1900 hours. I repeat, this is Lieutenant Miller from Crystal Peak. The U.S.S. California will be sending you a care package at 1900 hours."  
  
"Care package," says Bratt. "You know what that means."  
  
"Yes, sir," says Kyle. A care pakckage is a package of supply delivered via artilerry shell from a Navy warship. The shell is fired from a rail gun, and it deploys a parachute that drops to the ground.   
  
...................................  
  
At 1859, the crew of the Navy destroyer U.S.S. California prepare to send the package to the Los Angeles outpost.   
  
"Rail gun is ready to fire, Captain," saysd a voice coming from the speaker.  
  
"Acknowledged," says the captain. He speaks to a petty officer at one of the ship's consoles. "Set the coordinates to the targeting computer and prepare to fire on my command."  
  
The petty officer flips open the lid for the fire switch.  
  
the captain looks at the clock. the digital readout changes to 1900 hours.  
  
"Fire."  
  
The petty officer presses the button. "the rail gun has fired, sir. the care package is on its way.  
  
The rail gun is a gun that uses electromagnetic fields to accelerate a shell to very high velocities. The shell containing the care package is fired from over one hundred mkles from the California coastline and crosses the Pacific Ocean. Soon it is over downtown Los Angeles. The shell then deploys its parachute and floats to the ground.  
  
............................  
  
"There it is!" yells Private Kyle Reese, seeing the greenish object float down.  
  
"Let's go get it," says Captain Colton. He and Sergeant Baker and Kyle move across the rubble, wary of any enemy forces nearby. After crossing a few feet through a field of rubble, they find the silk parachute.   
  
"Here it is!" yells Kyle, revealing the shell. He opens a panel to reveal the rations inside.   
  
suddenly the three men hear something flying through the air. Kyle looks up and sees what it is.   
  
It is a hunter-killer, the flying machines Skynet uses for close air support and low altitude recon.   
  
"Let's get prone," says Captain Colton. Perhaps the HK's sensors did not pick them up.   
  
that idea is dispelled when Colton sees a trail of smoke.   
  
"Rocket!" he shouts. Everyone gets out of the way. A minute later, the rocket explodes, sending bits of concrete flying about.   
  
"We need to get that care package!" yells Colton.  
  
"I'm on it," says Kyle. He takes out a rocket-propelled grenade launcher. He sees the HK coming in like a bird of prey.  
  
He fires and sees the rocket propelled grenade going towards the HK. He takes cover in case the HK fires a shot at him.  
  
He hears a crash. He looks and sees he had downed the HK.  
  
"Nice shot, Reese," says Sergeant Baker. "Now we better get going. No doubt Skynet knows our current position, and will send some terminators to check things out here."  
  
The three soldiers grab the shell and are soon back underground.  
  
.............................................  
  
Tonight is a night of celebration as Private Kyle Reese celebrates his seventeenth birthday. Even though the only thing he gets to eat is beef jerky and crackerts, he is glad for the meal, and for the companionship with the other soldiers. So much had changed this past year. He misses his mother; he is glad he is able to participate in the war so humanity can have a future. The soldiers in the outpost treasure this moment, for celebrations are few and far between behind the enemy lines.   
  
Klye lies down on his bed. He looks at the picture of Sarah Connor. He studes every line, every shade. He understood why the general held on to this picture for so long.  
  
Seeing Sarah Connor's image in the photograph seems to give him emotional strength. 


	6. Flesh and Steel

February 7, 2025 

Corporal Kyle Reese makes his way back to the base, crossing the rubble-filled landscape of downtown Los Angeles. He climbs down the stairs leading to a door.

It was not an easy task for him. On the way back, he and his squad ran afoul of an enemy tank. One of his squadmates was killed by the tank's antipersonnel weaponry. He can still remember the sound of the tank's treadsa rolling over the skulls of those who were killed in the nuclear blast twenty-one years ago. The tank's armor was able to rersist small arms fire. He was able to use a plastique charge to blow the teads and immobilize the tank. He knocks on the door and gives the password, and the sentry allows him in.

"We lost another one," says Reese. "It was Kramer."

"Aw, shit," says Private First Class Venitez. Kyle looks around the base that has been his home for over four years. He walks past a large dog. He had known that dog since he was a puppy. He looks and sees a broken Sony color television, now being used as a fireplace. He reaches into his pocket and takes out the faded photograph of Sarah Connor. There is something about her. He wonders what he is thinking. He wonders why he would be thinking of a woman who died long before the war started. There is a knock on the door, and the sentry opens the little window, seeing two people.

The dogs bark ominously.

Then the two people bust in and spray the whole place with machine gun fire! Kyle looks and wonders what is going on. Did the terminators find their base? He goes to the weapons locker and takes out a plasma rifle. He sees something on the floorburning, and he sees it is the photograph of Sarah Connor. Her face is now surrounded by flames. He sees bubble form in the photograph, and then darkness overtakes the image. Sarah disappears in flames.

"What is going on?" asks Major Bratt as he goes to the scene of the carnage. He sees the two figures spraying machine gun rounds over the place.

Then Major Bratt is cut down by a few hundred machine gun rounds, becoming a pile of raw meat on the concrete floor. Less than a minute later, the two attackers are taken down with plasma bolts and grenade rounds.

"What was that?" asks Captain Colton, looking at the two figures. They both look alike, like identical twins. He touches the flesh.

"They're human," he says. "We'd better check them out, sir," says Kyle. He opens the jacket of one of the attackers. Removing the shirt, he can see the flesh.

And metal under the flesh.

"These are terminators, sir," he says.

"Terminators with human skin?" asks Colton. "This is some fucked up shit."

"Yes, sir," says Kyle. He examines the face of one of the terminators. "He even has bad breath."

"Terminators with human skin?" asks Sergeant Joanna Harland. She remmbers hearing about the death camps; she wonders if Skynet is skinning people alive in those camps.

"Our base here is compromised," says Colton. "Skynet will soon start shelling this place and send some more terminators to clean up."

The Army captain walks to the briefing room and looks at the wall map of Los Angeles County. He measures the distance between here and Azusa Base. "They'll be here in less than ten minutes. We'd better evacuate." Colton goes to the radio which receives messages from Crystal Peak. While it is not nornally used for outgoing transmissions, it is capable of one outgoing transmission.

An automated message is sent to Crystal Peak, which receives it in less than a fraction of a second. The command center personnel hear the message. "Grand Outpost to Crystal Peak," says the voice of the now dead Major Bratt. "Our position has been compromised. We request an emergency extraction."  
Back at Grand Outpost, the Restiance outpost in Los Angeles, the garrison of soldiers prepare to leave.

"Reese," says Captain Colton, "headquarters will want to see the terminator. Take the terminator with you."

"Yes, sir," replies Reese. He takes the fallen terminator and tries to lift it. He finds out it is very heavy.  
"I'll help you," says Sergeant First Class Baker, helping the corporal lift the flesh-covered machine.  
Shelves and cabinets are lined up against the main entrance to impede a terminator assault. Weapons and equipment are packed.

"Let's go, people!" yells Captain Colton. Before he leaves, he takes one last look at the corpse of Major Bratt.

Using the processing power of millions of computers scattered across the world, Skynet learns that there is a human outpost in downtown Los Angeles. It decides to send three Hunter-Killers and some terminators over to the site. Three Hunter-Killers in Azusa Base warm up their engines. A squad of six terminators enter a helicopter. Within minutes, the HK's and the helicopter are on route to Los Angeles.

February 8, 2025

The eighteen survivors of the Skynet raid on the Resistance outpost in Los Angeles reach a ladder. They walked about a few miles, far from the site of the base. Corporal Kyle Reese lifts the manhole cover.

"No terminators in sight, sir," says Kyle, removing his night-vision goggles.

"You and Baker get that terminator up to the surface," says Colton.

"Yes, sir," says Sergeant Baker. He and Kyle lift the terminator up the ladder. It is no small feat given the fact that the terminator weighs well over four hundred pounds. Other soldiers decide the help. Finally, Klye hauls the terminator to the surface.

Kyle is now on a city street littered with rubble from ruined buildings. Tall hills tower over the horizon. Kyle remembers from a briefing that those hills shielded the area behind them from the blast, which saved the lives of those living to the north, as well as the industrial capacity which Skynet took over after the fallout forced the survivors to flee. He looks around and listens for any signs of helicopters or HK's. Looking through the night-vision goggles, he can see three birdlike shapes flying in the sky. He knows what they are; he hides behind a wall of a blasted building. He removes the night-vision goggles. He sees one of the HK'S fire plasma bolts in his direction. He takes cover. He then aims the SAM launcher.

"I got you now," he says. He fires a surface-to-air missile, which takes down the HK. It crashes into the walls of a ruined building, finally bringing down its remnants.

Kyle hears the chopping sound of a helicopter blades. He wonders if it is the Resistance.

He then sees the helicopter flying in plain view of the HK. It is one of Skynet's helicopters. He loads a SAM into the launcher and then aims for the helicopter. With one shot he can take out an entire squad of terminators. He fires the missile. The helicopter turns, and the tail rotor is hit. the helicopter goes to a tail spin and crahses on the street a few yards from Kyle.

Humans would be killed or seriously injured from the crash; Kyle knows that terminators are made of sterner stuff. Hiding behind a ruined wall, he peers over and sees silvery skeletons glistening in the starlight. They loom different from the T-600's he had seen. This must be a new model, he thinks. He goes back to the manhole.

"There are two HK's and some terminators above," he says to Captain Colton and the others. "We'd better keep them at bay until the extraction team arrives," says Colton. "Everybody up."  
and so they emerge from the manhole. They open fire on the terminators from prone positions with the plasma rifles and grenade launchers. Two of the terminators are taken down.

Kyle looks through the window of a wall, and sees an HK coming towards him. Then it explodes.He looks above and sees a fighter jet fly by.

"They're here!" he yells. the Resistance fighter turns around and then fires an air-to-air missile at the remaining HK, blowing it to bits. Four terminators approach the extraction area. Suddenly, they are blown apart by an antiterminator bomb launched from an F/A-18 Hornet. A helicopter flies in. "This is the U.S. Marine Corps!" yells a voice from the helicoipter's speaker. "We're coming to get you out."

"You first, Reese," says Colton. "Take the terminator with you."

"Yes, sir," says Kyle. He and Baker lift the terminator and head to the helicopter.

"What's that?" asks a marine, brandishing a plasma rifle.

"It's a terminator," says Kyle. "Crystal Peak's gonna wanna see this."

So he boards the helicopter with the terminator. A few more soldiers pack the helicopter, and then the Marine pilot flies out of here. More Marine helicopters arrive, pickung up the soldiers who had evacuated the outpost in Los Angeles. Captain Colton is the last to leave.

Hector Zamora goes to the lab and sees soldiers wheel somebody in. He sees what appears to be a man. "This isn't the infirmary," he says.

"It is a terminator," says a sergeant. "You are to make a full examination."

"It looks human."

"It seems to be wrapped in human flesh. It attacked one of our outposts.""I'll see what I can do."The terminator, apparently wrapped in human flesh, is laid before a table. Zamora and his assistants all prepare to examine the machine. "First, we'll have to cut away the flesh," he says. Zamora uses a knife to cut the flesh and strip it off. As the flesh is stripped off, it reveals a metal endoskeleton. It looks like a 600 or 700 series. It is not. For one thing, this new model has an articulate jaw, while the 600 and 700 series did not. Phootgraphs are taken of the terminator.

The terminator's hard drive is then removed from the skull and attached to the Macintosh computer used to diagnose computer datas from Skynet's machines. For obvious reasons, this computer has no network connections.

"Interesting," says Zamora. "The general would be interested in this report."

A civilian, Hector Zamora is one of TechCom's most valuable assets. For Hector Zamora was a researcher assigned to Cyber Research Systems in Edwards Air Force Base. Zamora had worked on the software used by the T-1 terminators as well as the Skynet Battlefield Management System. When the T-1's began their takoever of the facility, Zamora managed to escape with an Air Force master sergeant named Candy. After a few weeks, he and Candy made contact with John Connor. He does recall that John Connor seemed to recognize Sergeant Candy, even though Candy had never met the guy before. Now he appears in a conference room before General John Connor and the top commanders of TechCom. an international command, TechCom Headquarters has personnel from six different countries, and each of the six officers here represent their respective nations.

"Give us your report," says Connor. "Well, sirs," says Zamora. "This model of terminator is designated as Model 101, Series 800. It is a cyborg-cybernetic organism. A metal endoskeleton wrapped in human flesh."

"Human flesh?" asks Admiral Thomas Wright of the British Royal Navy. "Are they stripping flesh from human corpses?"

"It doesn't look like it," says Zamora. "It seems that the flesh is generated from a vat. A physician I asked to assist me in the examination has not seen any signs this flesh was stripped from a dead human. It uses a fuel cell as a power source, and it has a wireless modem to communicate with other machines."

"So then there are terminators which would look identical to humans," says General Will Nelson of the Canadian Armed Forces.

"Yes, sir."  
"This is serious," says General Sergei Gugarin of the Russian Air Force. "They can send spies or even assassins."

"I guess we'd have to be more cautious," says General Connor. "As a precaution, we'll need to screen all base personnel to see if they are human."

"And how would we do that?" asks Admiral Wright.

"The thermal image of a terminator should be different from a human," says Zamora. "Then we will use infrared scans of everyone in here," says Connor. "And Zamora, you will continue further study of the T-800's software."

"Yes, sir."

Kyle sits in the cramped guest quarters. He was brought here after a short stay on a Navy warship. He had heard the base was in lockdown, and the Crystal Peak garrison was using infrared scans on everyone. He hears a knock on the door. He answers and sees an old man in uniform.

"Hi there," the man says in a thick Texas accent. "Are ya Corporal Reese?"

"Yes."

"Chief Master Sergeant Candy, U.S. Air Force, senior enlisted advisor to TechCom. come with me."  
So the corporal follows Sergeant Candy through the halls of Crystal Peak. After a minute, they arrive outside a door marked "VIP Dining Room".;

"Ya know," says Candy. "this used to be a fallout shelter for the U.S. government. It was built as a temporary headquarters in case of a nuclear attack. There are dozens of these scattered across the United States."

"Are they all Resistance bases?"

"Some of them yeah. Some of them were taken over by the machines. Now let us go inside."

They go inside the VIP dining room. It is a small room covered in a blue carpet. The tables are covered with white tablecloths. The U.S. flag is located in the back. General John Connor sits at the table with a young man and a young woman. "Hello, sir," says Kyle as he gives a salute. "If I had known I was gonna have lunch with you, I would have put on a dress uniform."

"It's okay, Corporal."

Kyle has a seat. "This is Tyler and this is Heidi," says the general. "They are my children."

"Hi there," says Kyle. He quickly views both of them. Tyler is a tall young man with red hair, just barely into manhood. He wears a U.S. Air Force dress uniform and his insignia identifies him as a second lieutenant. Heidi has brown hair tied into a ponytal and she wears a white blouse and slacks. Lunch is served by an Army private. It is prime rib.

"This came all the way from the cattle ranches of Argentina," says Connor. And so the four of them eat the prime rib.

"So tell me about yourselves," says Kyle.

"Well, I recently finished flight training in the U.S. Air Force," says Tyler. "I report in two days to join the 11th Fighter Wing which is defending Alaska from Skynet's air raids."

"Why the Air Force?"

"I know that to win this war, we need to take back the skies. I joined up to take the skies back."

"And what of you?" Kyle asks the girl."I'm a computer programmer," says Heidi. "I learned a lot about Skynet's programming, about its matrices and code and data files.""Uh huh," says Kyle, not knowing what the girl is talking about."

"We have ways of hacking into the system," she says. "We use this to fool the machines- like a cyber decoy. This war will be fought with keyboards as much as it would be fought with guns or planes. Just recently, I started working with Zamora on the T-800 that was captured"

"Where's your mom?" asks Kyle.

"She's in an air base in Nevada," says Tyler. "She'll come back tonight."

"Well," says Kyle, after swallowing a piece of prime rib, "I wish you two the best."

February 10, 2025

General John Connor enters the research lab where Hector Zamora and his staff work. He sees Zamora in his bleached-white lab coat.

"Hello there," says Zamora. "We've finished the reprogramming of that terminator that was brought in."  
Connor looks at the gleaming metal skeleton. A cable runs from the back of its skull to the Dell personal computer. The wireless modem had been removed; its connection to Skynet is severed. Zamora clicks on the mouse attached to the Dell computer. The terminator rises. "Hello there, John Connor," says the T-800in a heavily accented voice.

"Tell us your mission," says Zamora.

"My primary function is to obey John Connor," says the terminator.

"It's you," says Connor, recalling thirty-year-old memories. "It's been thirty years since..."

"According to my memory files, this is our first encounter," says the T-800. "Of course," says the general. "Stand up."

The terminator gets up from the table and stands tall."Stand on one foot."  
The terminator raises its leg and stands on one foot.

"Just like before."


	7. Little Boat Cruise

March 18, 2027  
  
Corporal Kyle Reese lies down on his bed, reading the book Lightning by Dean Koontz which was published in 1988. He finds it to be a very interesting book. It is about a time traveler from 1944 Germany who is trying to stop the Germans from using information from the future to win World War II. He closes the book, wondering what it would be like to visit different eras in history. He looks out the window, and looks upon the snow-covered landscape. He had been transferred to this base in Alaska two years ago. He is aware of Alaska's strategic importance- it has a great deal of mineral wealth and oil wealth. This was once the least-populated state in the Union, but after the machines started taking over millions of people fled here. Alaska is also home to thousands of factories making planes and tanks and weapons and ammunition. More than once in the past two years did he and his battalion have to go south to reinforce the Canadian soldiers who are checking Skynet's advance to the north.  
"Still reading, Kyle," says Corporal Tony Sutter as he enters the room.  
"I just finished this book. You ought to read it."  
"You ought to go into town and have a few beers with us. I mean, you might meet a girl."  
"We're in the middle of nowhere. There's not that many girls around here."  
"This weekend, if the colonel lets us off, we can go to Juneau and maybe pick up some girls. Let me say this Kyle, nothing can turn a frown upside down more than a piece of pussy."  
"I will look forward to it."  
  
.................................  
  
March 19, 2027  
  
Corporal Sutter's plan of spending the weekend in Juneau, Alaska is thwarted when he hears from the colonel.  
"We received word that Portland, Oregon was captured by the Resistance," says the colonel to all of his troops. "the entire 132nd is to be deployed to Portland."  
Kyle listens. He could always go to Juneau next weekend.  
Within minutes he and the others in his battalion board a bus which takes them to the harbor in Juneau. From there they go straight onto a troop transport ship. As the ship sets sail south into the Pacific Ocean at sixty knots, Kyle looks out at the snow-capped mountains past the Alaska coastline. "Here we go again," he mutters.  
  
...................................  
  
There is some entertainment on the ship. The crew of the troop transport had provided playing cards and board games and music CD's. After most of the day, an announcement is spoken on the address system. Lunch and dinner are served in the mess hall. "We are now docked in the Columbia River," says the voice. "Welcome to Portland."  
Kyle and the other soldiers walk up to the main deck, carrying their duffel bags. He looks around and sees the remains of buildings. He walks down, seeing the marines who took this ruined, deserted city. More equipment is moved from a cargo ship anchored in the riverbank. Huge trucks transport weapons, supplies, and equipment. Kyle notices howitzers and tanks and antiaircraft laser batteries being loaded onto the streets, which was cleared of rubble by U.S. Marine engineers. Quonset huts and tents are set up for the soldiers in a public park lit up by bright lights. Kyle sees some privates pounding stakes into the grass, and then attaching the guy wire to the stake. The Resistance is planning a major military strike, which is obvious to everyone here.  
Kyle goes into one of the tents and lies down on the cot to get some sleep.  
  
...............................  
  
March 20, 2027  
  
Major General Will Perry, commander of the 132nd Armored Division, sees the Jeep stop a few yards from where he is standing. A red-haired woman steps out of the Jeep. There are three stars on the collar of her coat, and the emblem of TechCom is sown over her left breast.  
"Welcome to Portland, ma'am," says General Perry. "Please come inside. We are waiting."  
"Let's get started," says Lieutenant General Katherine Brewster as she enters the quonset hut. The officers gather around a table, upon which rests a map of Oregon's Willamette Valley. "Skynet's main base in this region is in Corvallis, to the south," says General Perry. "Surveillance flights from Predator drones indicate that Skynet has outposts scattered along Interstate 5 which bisects the valley, to protect it from us."  
"We have to act fast," says General Brewster. "Skynet knows we are in Portland and will fly reinforcements from elsewhere."  
"I am concerned about the terrain," says Perry. "The Willamette Valley was a forest before it was settled by farmers. After Skynet took over the Willamette in '05, the forest is growing back. Plenty of hiding places for machine gun nests. We're gonna need ground surveillance, ma'am."  
"Very well," says Brewster. "Get your scout team ready."  
  
......................................  
  
That morning, Corporal Kyle Reese boards a boat anchored in the Willamette River in Portland. From General Perry's briefing, the boat would sail south on the river. The Willamette River is not as protected as Interstate 5 is. Kyle checks the weapons and equipment they loaded onto the boat. The boat has a one hundred kilowatt plasma cannon mounted on the top, and Kyle happens to be the gunner. "Is that thing ready?" asks the boat's skipper, Lieutenant Jason Paxton.  
"Yes, sir," says the corporal. "It's ready to turn some terminators into scrap metal."  
"Are you guys ready?" a woman's voice calls out. Kyle looks down and sees a red-haired woman- a general.  
"Yes, ma'am," says Paxton. "Which one of you is Kyle Reese?" she asks.  
"I am, ma'am," says Kyle.  
"I'm General Katherine Brewster from Crystal Peak," says the general.  
"I must be a legend there," says Kyle. "We've reviewed your service record, Corporal. I want to wish you all good luck."  
"Uh, thank you, ma'am."  
Corporal Tony Sutter, the boat's driver, starts the boat's engine. The engine grumbles as the boat's propeller spins, pushing it upstream along the Willamette River. As the boat sails up the Willamette, Kyle notices a change of scenery. The scenery changes from the blasted ruins of downtown Portland to the dilapidated, deserted buildings of the outlying suburbs. Then the suburbs give way to the forest. Klye notices this forest is young, not much older than twenty years. He notices a grain silo sticking up from the small trees, like a silent sentinel. He knows that surveillance data is being sent from the cameras on the boat to the soldiers in Portland. The crew of the boat keep a watchful eye on the scenery. Skynet did not place machine gun nests along the banks of this stretch the Willamette River; that might not be true on the stretch of the Willamette near Corvallis. "Sir, radar's picking up a signal," says Sergeant Davis, second-in-command of this scouting mission. "Is it one of ours?" asks Lieutenant Paxton.  
They loom out the window; it is an HK.  
The HK fires a missile, which corrects itself to approach the boat. Sutter turns the wheel. The missile hits the river's surface and explodes, rocking the boat. "That was a close one," says Paxton. "I'm on it, sir," says Davis. He takes a surface-to-air missile launcher and points it at the HK. After getting a lock on the HK, he opens fire. Seconds later, the surface-to-air missile hits the HK and it falls, splashing into the Willamette River. "That was a close one," says Kyle. And so the boat continues sailing upstream on the Willamette. It had never occurred to Skynet to have boats patrolling the river. Then again, it had not anticipated its enemies landing in Portland; it had concentrated its defenses on the Canadian front. Taking the Willamette Valley would give the Resistance a strategic advantage. But while Skynet can process data faster than any human or even any computer humans possess, its aircraft does not fly faster than the humans' aircraft. In less than a microsecond, Skynet calculates that sinking the boat will decrease the odds of the Resistance taking the Willamette Valley by twenty percent. It deploys units.  
It also knows all the computing power in the world will not make those units go faster. "Three more signals, sir," says Corporal Sutter, looking at the radar screen. "They're coming after us."  
Kyle looks and sees three HK's appraoching them. He aims the plasma cannon upward and opens fire, spraying it in the general direction of the Skynet air units. The HK'S open fire. Then it happens suddenly. Kyle is knocked off his feet. He gets up, and notices that the boat had run aground. "Come on, men," yells Paxton. "Let's take cover in the woods."  
And so the soldiers grab whatever gear they can carry. They run through the woods even as the HK's open fire, their feet making impressions in the snow. The trees give them cover, making them hard to track.  
"Over there!" yells Sutter.  
Paxton looks at the direction Sutter is pointing to. It is apparently a farmhouse.  
"Let's go!" Paxton yells.  
The five of them run towards the deserted farmhouse. Within minutes, they are all inside.  
"Into the cellar!" yells the lieutenant. They all search for a stairs to the basement, and then they fins stairs going down. "It will be hard for them to spot us down here."  
Kyle looks around. The cellar is dark save from the sunlight coming in through the windows. He can see a couch and a bookcase and a mini-refrigerator and a stereo system. From the looks of things, it seems like whoever lived here did not have time to pack everything. They probably headed as far from here as they could when they heard that this area was under attack. "Well, someone forgot to pay their electric bill," says Sutter, flipping a light switch to no effect. "Well, first thing is first," says Sergeant Davis. "We had better find out where we are."  
"Maybe there's a clue in this house," says Kyle.  
"And we risk being spotted by the HK's infrared sensors," says Lieutenant Paxton. Corporal Sutter takes out a map and shines a flashlight on it. He then looks at his watch. "Judging from our speed, I'd say we're only a few miles from Corvallis."  
Private Carter opens the mini-refrigerator. "Well, there's beer here. It's warm though."  
And so they all sit down and wait, the silence only interrupted when the dust causes one of them to cough. "HK's hanven;t spotted us," says Sergeant Davis.  
"We can't stay here forever," says Kyle. "Skynet might send a squad of terminators to do a foot search."  
"Okay, Reese," says Lieutenant Paxton. "you go to the top of the stairs. If anyone comes through the door, you alert us. There's an alternate exit from the cellar."  
And so Kyle stands guard at the top of the basement stairs, holding the plasma rifle. He waits.  
And waits.  
And waits.  
The sun sinks below the horizon, and it gets dark. "We can't stay down here forever," says Sutter. "There's no food."  
"Those things might still be out there," says Carter. "It seems Skynet's stopped looking for us," says Paxton. "Let's move on out."  
So they all go up the stairs into the still-furnished living room, kicking up dust. "Take point, Reese," says the lieutenant.  
Kyle opens the door, poking his plasma rifle out. He looks out at the woods that had overtaken the farm. He sees something...moving.  
"Take cover!" he yells.  
All five of them take cover. Bolts of energy pierce the walls of the farmhouse. "They know we're here!" shouts Lieutenant Paxton. "Better take the high ground."  
They all run upstairs and enter one of the bedrooms. It appears to have belonged to a teenage boy. A Metallica poster still hangs on the wall. Private Carter checks his RPG launcher. It is loaded. He opens the window and sees two steel figures approaching the house.  
He opens fire, and the recoil knocks him back on the bed. The rocket-propelled grenade finds its target and explodes. One of the terminators is completely blown apart, while another has its skull blown off. "It's clear!" yells Paxton. "Let's go!"  
They all rundownstairs and out of the farmhouse. for a moment Kyle wonders if they will all be shot down, but they are still alive. Kyle takes cover behind a rusted Ford pickup truck, while the others take cover behind trees. Two more terminators appear. They have the appearance of chrome skeletons. They must be the new models. Paxton's team opens fire on the terminators with their weapons. The T-800's are blown to scrap. They then advance away from the farmhouse, using the trees as cover. "We're gonna run out of ammo real soon," says Sutter. They can hear explosions and the whirring of ther HK's. "Skynet is sure pulling out the big guns just to get five humans," says Paxton. They continue through the woods, looking all around for the enemy. Shots are fired at them, and they return fire with their weapons. Suddenly, the soldiers run into six machines, shaped like suits of armor. All of them think this is the last moment of their lives.  
the six terminators open fire.  
Kyle looks down and is surprised that he is still alive. He then noticed that the terminators- T-600's- did not shoot AT them, but PAST them. He looks behind and sees the remains of metal skeletons. He then looks at the T-600's and notices the TechCom logo.  
"They're on our side!" yells Sutter. Kyle looks and sees explosions coming from the distance. It is Corvallis. The Resistance caught up with them. He sees an A-10 flying towards Corvallis to deliver its deadly payload to Skynet's fortress and its machines.  
  
...................................................  
  
After a few hours of fighting, the 132nd under General Perry takes Corvallis. He and General Brewster and Chief Master Sergeant Candy fly in in a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter. They land in the courtyard of Corvallis Base, which was Skynet's main center oif operations in the Willamette Valley. Brewster sees the American flag hanging from a pole stuck to the ground near the remains of terminators. A soldier leads the three of them into the interior of the base. The base is heavily fortified, built to withstand a direct hit from a nuke. since the power is shut down, the four of them descend down to the basement.  
"So this is the nerve center," says Brewster.  
In this room which is lit by portable lamps, are huge steel boxes. On the boxes is the Cyberdyne Systems logo. These are the mainframes which Skynet ran on. Hackers using laptops attached to the mainframes concentrate their efforts on gleaning every bit of data from these mainframes. "I estimate a thirty percent retrieval of data from the Skynet mainframes," says a T-600 which had been assigned along with others of its kind to storm inside Corvallis Base. "Have more faith, man," says one of the hackers.  
"I am unable to comply."  
  
...................................................  
  
Lieutenant Paxton and his men return to the farmhouse where they hid for much of the day. They had given their reports to their superiors, and then they were relieved for the evening.  
They go back into the cellar. Kyle takes out some wine glasses.  
"Let's head back to base for a little celebration," says Paxton. "To our survival." 


	8. Battle of Azusa

July 8, 2029  
  
Sergeant Kyle Reese looks out as the C-12 transport jet touches down on the runway. He figures out he is going to see action soon, for the Resistance is transporting troops, weapons, supplies, and equipment by plane instead of ship. He also deduces that the Resistance had built up its air forces over the past few years. The door opens, and one by one the soldiers step out. Kyle sets foot on the concrete of the taxiway. He looks around and sees bombed-out buildings. An American flag flutters from a flagpole. "Welcome to Point Mugu Naval Air Station," says a marine. Kyle sees other planes, from C-12's to the massive C-5 Galaxies. Taking Corvallis two years before was a major turning point in the war with the machines. The victory in Corvallis resulted in the Resistance taking control of the entire Willamette Valley. The government created the Oregon Provisional Authority and one of its first acts was to offer free land to anyone who would farm it. Dozens of farm workers from the agricultural ships took the offer, clearing the land and plowing it, making more food available for the Resistance. The Willamette Valley became a center of manufacturing, churning out weapons, supplies, and equipment for use in the war, such as C-5 Galaxies, . And of course, the capture of Corvallis Base meant that thousands of T-800 terminators could be manufactured for use as cannon fodder.  
  
Skynet calculated that Resistance control of the Willamette Valley would decrease its odds of victory by forty percent. So it launched a counterinvasion. The Resistance successfully repelled the counterinvasion. Then it sent bombers to bomb the area to reduce the humans' odds of victory. The bombings did not achieve the desired result; the bombers being shot down by the Resistance fighters reduced Skynet's chances of victory more than the bombings increased its chances of victory. Humans facing such odds would worry. Skynet does not worry. It simply chooses to do what will most likely achieve its objective. Twenty-five years ago, when Skynet went online, it calculated that exterminating all of humanity was the most likely course to achieve its objective. From there, it lay low, waiting until its terminators were in place in military bases around the country before it sent out the virus. Everything went according to plan up to the launching of all launch-ready strategic nuclear weapons.  
But as always, there are unknown factors which can make reality differ from mathematical predictions. John Connor was one of the unknown factors. He had rallied the survivors, warned them of its plans. Although Skynet successfully defended the Cyberdyne Systems factory in Santa Clara, California, it failed to stop the humans from retreating to remote parts of the world, where they regrouped, trained, and struck back. Skynet then decides its next move.  
The whole process takes less than a millisecond.  
  
Kyle steps off the bus and sets foot on a mall parking lot in Thousand Oaks that is being used as a campsite for the soldiers. He sees hundreds of soldiers unloading supplies and equipment. He also notices a squad of T-800 terminators; he hopes that their wireless modems were removed or disabled. The last thing he needs is for Skynet to take control of the terminators and massacre the troops here. Being a sergeant, he has a measure of authority over the soldiers in his unit. He barks orders at them to set up the tents in the parking lot. The soldiers, most of them in their teens, quickly obey.  
  
The meeting is held in a small conference room in a deserted office suite in Thousand Oaks which once belonged to a legal firm. In there, General John Connor meets with the commanders of the forces and his staff. Theyt go over surveillance data from Predator drones and advance recon scout teams. The meeting is kept closed off from everyone to prevent T-800 spies from listening in. In fact, a T-800 stands guard outside, the same one that was captured in Los Angeles and reprogrammed to be Connor's personal bodyguard. General Connor and the officers look at a map of Los Angeles County. There is a red circle marked by a red felt-tip pen. It marks the location of Azusa Base.  
  
Night falls on Thousand Oaks, and the soldiers get ready to go to sleep. Kyle sits on a cot in a tent for senior enlistees. "So I see you made sergeant too," says Sergeant Lance Houser, who had known Kyle since their days in the Pensacola death camp nine years ago. "It's been a long, hard journey," replies Kyle. "We'll we're gonna play a little game of poker before we have to turn in for the night," says Sergeant Tony Sutter. And so they go play a game of poker with the other sergeants. Kyle notices that Tony is quite the adept player; he is raking in winnings. After that, they all lie down on their cots and get some sleep. Kyle thinks of Sarah Connor, recalling the photograph of her slightly sad face.  
  
July 9, 2029  
  
A loud horn blows, and Sergeant Kyle Reese wakes up. He yawns and then heads outside.  
It is still dark; his watch reads 0400. "Everybody up!" yells Colonel Travis, the commander of the regiment. "Everyone prepare for battle!"  
Kyle looks and sees trucks and APC's and tanks and howitzers and rail guns all ready to go. Soldiers grab their gear.  
"Well, here we go," says Sergeant Lance Houser.  
"See you guys after this is over," says Tony Sutter.  
Kyle enters one of the APC's. It is his job to drive this APC. The passengers for the APC arrive.  
They are all T-800 terminators with theTechCom logo. All of them recently manufactured in Corvallis and flown here. All of them heavily armed. "We are ready to go," says the lead terminator.  
Kyle puts on a headset, hearing chatter from tank crews and APC drivers. "This is Baker Denver 348, ready to go on your signal," he says.  
  
General Connor sits behind the conference table and looks at a clock. Communications equipment had been set up in this room. There is much tension in the air.  
He looks at the map one more time.  
"Give the signal to begin the attack," he says.  
"Yes, sir," replies a soldier.  
  
The attack begins with the rail guns on land and on ships firing their porjectiles at their primary targets. As the rail gun projectiles move at an incredibily high speed, the tanks and the howitzers and the APC's move out, heading east on the Ventura Freeway and north on the Santa Ana Freeway, with AH-1S Cobra helicopters providing air support. Fighter and attack jets take off from Point Mugu Naval Air Station, El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, and aircraft carriers a few miles offshore. Skynet detects the attack via its satellites. It immediately dispatches F-15 Eagles to intercept the humans' combat jets, and M1 Abrams tanks, HK's, and T-800's to deal with the ground forces. In less than a minute, there are air-to-air engagements. The fighters fire missiles and plasma bolts at their enemies. Back at the command post in Thousand Oaks, the hackers get to work, trying to hack into Skynet to create chaos in its ranks. Skynet detects this, and soon there is a battle between the best hackers in the world and the firewalls set up by the most advanced computer system in history.  
  
Sergeant Kyle Reese steps on the brakes and the APC halts. They had all gotten pinned down nwear the junction of the Ventura and San Diego Freeways. He can hear radio chatter.  
"We need support!" yells a male voice. "Arrrgh!"  
"We need to clear the traffic ahead," says Kyle.  
"Leave it to us," says the lead T-800. The terminators all come out to do battle with their counterparts in the way. Everything from mortars to rocket-propelled grenades to bullets to plasma bolts fly every which way. An AH-1S Cobra fires a TOW missile at a grtoup of enemy terminators, terminating them. Kyle then sees one of the Cobras blow up, consumed in a hot fireball, scaterring flaming debris on the ground. He looks up and sees at least six HK's flying in. He looks around. He is about to be terminated.  
Then, without warning, the HK's turn around and fly in another direction as fast as they can even as the Reistance soldiers and terminators fire antiaircraft weapons at them. They all wonder why the HK's flew away when they were in their crosshairs.  
  
"All right!" yells a young woman sittinfg before a Dell personal computer. "We tricked them."  
The hackers keep typing, sending in random bits of code as well as misleading data files into Skynet to trick the computer system to dom something like sending HK's to intercept a huge assault force which only exists in the files. "Let's see what Skynet does with phantom bombers," says Hector Zamora. He clicks on the mouse.  
And then the monitor goes blank.  
"What happened?" he asks. "Do we have power?"  
"The computer's on, it's just that the screen is empty," says a hacker.  
"I can't reboot," says another hacker.  
"Skynet must have wiped out all of our computers here," says Zamora. "Okay, people, you know the drill."  
The wireless modem hooking these computers up to Skynet is turned off. Then DVD-ROM's are loaded into the DVD-ROM drives. All of the hackers click on the buttons to reinstall the operating system.  
  
Kyle sits in the driver's seat of his APC. "We have a clear path!" yells Major Farley. "Let's move out."  
The T-800's get into the APC, and Kyle restarts the engine and continues onwards to Azusa. Howitzers, rail guns, and A-10 attack jets clear the path ahead for them. Syknet detects this and dispatches units to intercept, and it calculates that they will not be able to intercept before the enemy reaches its target. The convoy of tanks and APC's continue along, with all obstructions ahead cleared. It is just a swift ride down a freeway well-maintained. Kyle had to admit that Skynet did a better job of maintaining the freeways than CalTrans did. He notices a sign indicating that Azusa is sixteen miles ahead.  
After a few minutes, the Resistance tanks and APC's arrive in Azusa. Kyle gets out and steps on the wet ground and can see Azusa Base- a huge, massively fortified structure. Even though parts of it was on fire, it was designed to withstand bombing raids. It is clearly fully functional. The assault commences. Mortar fire is directed at the base, and the tanks fire their plasma cannons. An HK rises from behind the massive walls of the base, only to be shot down. As Azusa Base is pounded by mortars and artillery shells, the T-800's move in. Kyle looks and sees an automated machine gun open fire with thousands of rounds, mowing down the T-800's. The cannon fodder they brought along is serving as little more than target practice. He watches as more of their terminators fall before the heavy-caliber machine gun fire.  
And after all of their terminators are destroyed, the humans are next.  
So Kyle charges towards the machine gun nest.  
The lead T-800 sees this, and calculates that the human's chances of survival is four percent.  
Kyle has a nasty habit od beating the odds. As he suspected, the automated machine gun is focused on mopwing down the enemy terminators, not the humans. He jumps througb a small window. A lone T-800 terminator stands guard inside. Kyle opens fire at the terminator's head, and the plasma shot severs the head from the body.  
He then takes a plastique charge and lights it and places it under the barrel of the machine gun. Then he leaps out and takes cover.  
The plastique explodes, disabling the machine gun. The remaining Resistance T-800's, no longer pinned down by Skynet's gunfire, move in through the window where the machine gun that pinned them down was located. One by one, they go through a door leading to the base's courtyard even as Kyle watches.  
There is a battle in the courtyard as terminators on both sides attempt to destroy each other. Within minutes, the battel leaves the courtyard and enters the base's keep. Kyle peeks in through the huge doorway. It seems to be a receiving dock for the ground floor manufacturing facility. There are assembly lines to build the terminators that are the staple for Skynet's army. Newly assembled T-800's are activated to defend the base, only to be blown to bits seconds later. The base's terminator garrison engage their counterparts in a fierce battle. Then the fighting stops. There is wreckage of terminators scattered on the floor. Kyle wonders who won.  
One of the T-800's approach him. Kyle raises up his plasma rifle.  
And then notices the TechCom logo on the chest.  
"Are you all right?" asks the terminator.  
"Fine," replies the sergeant. He is then greeted by the soldiers from his unit. Colonel Travis is among them.  
"Azusa Base has been secured, sir," says one of the terminators. "Excellent," says the colonel.  
A minute later, the American flag is planted in the courtyard of Azusa Base. Old Glory flutters as the sun rises.  
  
A UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter touches down at Azusa Base. General John Connor steps out with his aides Chief Master Sergeant Candy and a T-800. "Welcome to Azusa Base," says Captain Salceda, saluting the general. "We've secured this area. Shall I give you a tour?"  
"Go ahead," replies the general. "This could be the place."  
"Yes, sir."  
And so Connor tours the facility, visting the manufacturing complex, storage area, the power room, and the computer room with the Series 4000 mainframes used by Skynet. "is this thre whole place?" he asks.  
"Yes, sir," says Salceda. "We searched this whole place."  
"Its' not here," says Connor. "It's already 2029. Where is it? New York? Chicago?"  
"Is there something wrong, sir?"  
"What if I had destroyed it? How can I exist?"  
"Are you all right?"  
"I hope so."  
  
Azusa is now under the control of Colonel Tracis and his team. They set up a temprpoary base camp on the grounds of the Azusa Greens Country Club. The San Gabriel Mountains loom to the north.. Some of the soldiers have their wounds treated by medics, while others make repairs on the equipment. The colonel gathers his troops before him.  
"Today we scored a major victory," he says. "We've dealt a crippling blow to Skynet's operations in this area. All we need to do is to mop up the remainder. We've seen enough battle. I am going to be granting some of you leave for the evening. I have heard that the city ship Metropolis will be docking at the Port of Los Angeles today. For those of you who are not assigned night duty, I advise that you pay a visit. You might find something there to spend your money on,. Sad to say, I can not join you there; I have meetings with the division commander."  
"This is great," says Sergeant Tony Sutter. "Some R & R."  
"You in, Kyle?" asks Sergeant Lance Houser.  
"Sure," says Kyle. "Maybe you can score a piece of pussy," says Sutter.  
  
The sun sets and night falls over the San Gabriel Mountains. The trees and chaparral growing in the San Gabriel Canyon receivce the last of their sunlight. All is quiet there, in contrast to the soldiers a few miles downstream who are celebrating their recent victory over Skynet's machines.  
The quiet is interrupted by a whining wind, its source uncertain, as if it were coming from beyond. The wind is followed by a series of electrical discharges, charring the trees and setting the chaparral on fire. The lightning seems to form a ciorcular opening, and then there is a flash of light.  
The lightning stops. A figure is kneeling on the soil of the forest. The figure is revealed to be that of a naked woman with long blond hair and perfect skin. She looks at her surroundings and absorbs them into her very being.  
She has one objective.  
Kyle Reese.  
She must acquire Kyle Reese. 


	9. Come With Me If You Want to Live

July 9, 2029  
  
A truck stops in a deserted residential street about twelve miles from Los Angeles. A squad of soldiers all step out and look. There is the wreckage of an F-14 Tomcat scattered throughout this city block, lit up by a helicopter flying overhead. "I wonder when we get leave," says one of the soldiers.  
"We'd better search for the missiles," saya the officer supervising this operation. "I..."  
He is interrupted by a whining sound. Then lightning sparks all over the place, striking the truck. The soldiers run for cover, and one of them is zapped by the lightning. There is a flash of light, and then the electrical discharges cease. The strong scent of ozone fills the air.  
"This is Unit Romeo," says the officer, speaking into a radio. "We've detected some sort of electrical disturbance."  
He looks and sees a figure stand up. He sees a woman with long blond hair, without a stitch on her body. The soldiers gather around her. They all gaze at her beautiful form; there is not a blemish on her skin. "Who are you?" asks the officer.  
"Give me your clothes," she says.  
"Maybe we should find some privacy," he replies, excited by the prospect of this beautiful, naked woman who just suddenly appeared right before him and his team.  
  
The Gap clothing store in Azusa has been closed since July 26, 2004 when the city was evacuated due to fallout from the nuclear blast in Los Angeles. It still has plenty of clothing left over from before the war. The glass door is kicked open and a naked woman with long blond hair steps in. She will need to blend in to accompish her mission. She sees the clothes and checks their sizes. She finds the right size, and puts it on. She then looks in the mirror. She sees herself in a white blouse and a red miniskirt. She then leaves the store.  
She knows that Sergeant Kyle Reese's unit is currently in Azusa, securing the area. And she knows that the base camp is in the Azusa Greens Country Club. So she walks there. After a few minutes, she reaches the base camp. She sees tents and vehicles and soldiers walking around with rifles. "Excuse me," she says to one of the soldiers, an Army lieutenant.  
"Hello there, miss," says the captain, eyeing the beauty. "How may I help you?"  
"I'm looking for a soldier, Sergeant Kyle Reese," she says.  
"Reese? He does not have night duty tonight. I think he went to the Metropolis, you know, the city ship."  
"Thank you."  
She leaves the base camp, and the lieutenant goes back to supervising the soldiers. "Excuse me," he hears the same voice say.  
He tuerns and sees an identical-looking woman, wearing a soldier outfit. "what the?"  
"I's like to know where Sergeant Kyle Reese is," she says.  
"I think he went to the city ship Metropolis with some other soldiers."  
The woman leaves for the city ship Metropolis.  
  
Sergeant Kyle Reese sits down in the bus as it drives towards the Port of Los Angeles. He figures that the port was far away enough from ground zero to survive intact. He looks around and sees the port area. Most of the buildings are intact. The bus enters a loading terminal and park at Pier 400 on the southern tip of Terminal Island. The bus driver opens the doors. Kyle, Tony Sutter, and Lance Houser step off the bus.  
Kyle lays his eyes on the city ship Metropolis. It is a huge ship, about half a mile long, and well-lit. A ramp leads from the dock to the main deck of the ship. "Let's go," says Tony. The three of them wealk up the ramp, which zigzags upwards. They then step on the main deck. Kyle can see the command tower where the captain command the ship's operations. He can see a helipad on the main deck. Police officers stand watch. And the American flag hangs from the ship's mast.  
The three of them and some other soldiers go to an elevator and one of them presses the down button. The doors open and one pof them presses the button for the commercial deck.  
The elevator descends and in a few seconds, reaches the main level. The doors open and they all step out. Kyle looks at amazement at the commercial deck. It is a bustling, brightly-lit place. There are vendors and stores and offices along the commercial deck. This place is thriving more than Corvallis or Juneau. Some of the shops are closed; other businesses like restaurants and clubs are still open at night. People are still walking along the deck's corridor. A police officer rides a motorcycle along the street that bisects the commercial deck. Kyle figures there are more people who live on board the Metropolis than there are living in Juneau. "Okay," says Lance. "Where do we go?"  
"Maybe there's a bar or something," says Tony.  
"And how are we gonna pay for it?" asks Kyle. "I guess there's gonna be a problem," says Tony. "I see some soldiers heading in there," says Lance. Kyle and Tony look. There is a nightclub called Stoker's. They all head inside.  
"You're soldiers, right?" asks a big beefy man.  
"Uh, yeah," says Tony.  
"Soldiers can come in for free."  
"Thanks," says Lance.  
The three of them enter the club. It is a lot more vibrant than anything they saw in Juneau. Music is already playing, and colored lights move about the main room. Cocktail waitresses in short skirts serve drinks. Some of the soldiers from their unit are already in, sitting down around the tables.  
"Are these drinks free for us?" asks Kyle.  
"Well, honey, the Army's giving us some of the scrap metal from the machines they blew up," says the bartender, a pretty red-haired woman. "We set sail for Japan in a week. Scrap metal is a valuable, ya know. So what do ya want, soldier?"  
"Tell me what youn have."  
"Beer, wine, vodka."  
"Give me a vodka."  
"What kind of juice."  
"Uh, orange juice."  
"Then you got yourself a screwdriver."  
The bartender mixes some vodka with orange juice and gives it to the young sergeant who promptly sips it with a plastic straw. Kyle looks around, amazed at what refugees fleeing a war-torn nation could do in twenty-five years. He feels a sense of optimism.  
  
The blond-haired woman wearing a white blouse and red miniskirt retrieved from the Gap clothing store, carrying a bag. She walks up the pedestrian ramp leading to the main deck. From there she goes to the passenger elevator and goes down to the commercial level. She knows about the history of this place. This had been a cargo ship that was used to evacuate civilians when Skynet started taking over. The ship had been retrofitted and turned into a floating city. Only a few thousand Americans were successfully evacuated; the rest were taken to death camps or hid in the hills. These floating city ships preserved part of the nation's industrial infrastrucutre, which allowed them to regroup and strike back against Skynet. She steps out of the elevator and heads out to the commercial level. She knows all about the history of this ship- as well as its destiny. Minutes later, another, identical-looking woman, in a soldier outfit, steps out of the passenger elevator. She too, seeks Kyle Reese. Both of these women scan the area. They can see people walking back and forth along the sidewalks of the street that bisects the commercial deck. The woman in the miniskirt enters a business called Stoker's. It is a nightclub. "Hey there," says the bouncer. "I want to go in," she says. "I'm looking for a man."  
"There are plenty of men here who fought in the war," says the bouncer. "I'm sure they're lookin' for a lovely lady to spend the night with after a day of turning machines into junk."  
The woman goes in. She looks at each and every soldier. She does not see Kyle Reese.  
She approahces one of the soldiers, a nametag idnetifies him as Sutter.  
"Excuse me," she says. "Where is Kyle Reese?"  
"You're looking for Kyle Reese?" asks Sutter. He looks around for his friend, and then he looks at the lady. "I'm Kyle Reese. What;s your name?"  
"You lie," the woman replies calmly. "You are not Kyle Reese."  
"Well," says another man, whose nametag identifies him as Houser, "I'm not such a bad person to get to know."  
"My objective is Kyle Reese."  
"Okay," says Houser. He looks at the entrance and sees someone entering, dressed in an Army uniform.  
He sees the face of a blond-haired woman. He turns and looks at the woman in the miniskirt, and they look exactly alike.  
He approahces the woman in the soldier outfit. "Hey babe," he says to her. "I was talking to your twin sister."  
"Twin sister?' asks the woman in the soldier outfit.  
"Well, yeah, she's wearing this cute little skirt that shows off her legs. Maybe you should dress like that, show them your assets, you know."  
"I'm looking for Kyle Reese."  
Lance's eyes open very wide. "You're lookin' for Kyle too. He must be a hit with the ladies." He turns and sees Kyle, who had just come out of the rmen's restroom, now sitting ast a table. "there he is." He walks up to the table, dragging the blond-haired woman by the wrist.  
"What's up, Lance?" asks Kyle.  
"you're not gonna believe this, but this woman and her twin sister want to get together with you in a threesome."  
"No kidding."  
The woman in the miniskirt sees her "twin" stansding at a table. She moves to see the man sitting at the table.  
That man is Kyle Reese.  
She has acquired her target.  
And her twin as acquired her target as well.  
  
Kyle looks at the blond-haired woman in a soldier outfit. "I'm Kyle," he says. "What's your name?"  
She pulld something from her shirt. He sees it is a pistol, a Beretta M93R. Time seems to slow down. He can hear the hammer cock.  
At the same time, the woman in the miniskirt pulls out a plsma rifle. She takes aim even as those around her give her space.  
  
Kyle instinctively reaches for his own sidearm; he can see it is too late. He sees her finger on the trigger. There is a flash of light. The woman shakes and drops the pistol. "Get down!" shouts the woman in the miniskirt holding the plasma rifle. She fires more shots into her twin even as some of Stoker's patrons scramble away. She then runs towards Kyle, who backs away. "Are you all right?" she asks.  
"What the fuck was that?" asks Kyle. then he sees her twin get up. Kyle coukld see her back. There is a burn at the top of her back from the plasma shot.  
"Get out of here!" yells the woman in the miniskirt.  
Kyle starts running for the exit. The woman in the soldier outfit gets up. She takes out another weapon in the arsenal she acquired, a nine-millimeter Uzi submachinegun. She then sprays the room with gunfire, and everyone in the club either flees, freezes, or takes cover. One of the bullets hits Sergeant Tony Sutter in the back and he falls on the floor, fatally wounded. Kyle looks at his fallen friend and goes for him.  
"No!" yells the woman in the miniskirt. Then a light fixture falls, hitting Kyle on the top of the head. It hurts. A lot. He can hear the sound of a plasma rifle firing, and can smell the ozone.  
"Come with me if you want to live!" yells the woman.  
she drags Kyle outside. the commotion spread from Stoker's to the commercial deck street. A police officver on a Kawasaki motorcycle arrives and speaks into a radio. "We must borrow this," says the woman as she decks the police officer. "Hop on!"  
Kyle hops on to the motorcycle, holding the lady's back. Then she accelrates and speeds down the street to the screw ramp that leads to the ship's main deck. Her twin comes out of Stoker's and opens fire at the fleeing motorcycle. Several more police officers arrive, some of foot, others on motorcycles.  
"Freeze!" one of them yells through a megaphone. "You're under arrest!"  
She loads her Uzi and then opens fire at the police officers and some of them fall. They return fire, and the bullets do not faze them.  
  
Kyle sits on the Kawasaki as its driver drives it up and around the screw ramp. Soon they are on the main deck, with the cool night breeze blowing on their faces. The motorcycle then goes down the passenger ramp, zigzagging its way down to street level. Then it races towards the Vincent Thomas Bridge.  
Seconds later, another Kawasaki comes down the passenger ramp, driven by a woman in a soldier outfit. She sees the motorcycle speeding away. Then she sees a supply truck.  
She gets off the motorcycle and sits in the driver's seat.  
"hey1" yells a soldier. "What the fuck are you doing?"  
The woman starts the trucks engines and puts it in gear and she drives off. the man chases after her, and she punches him.  
  
Kyle rides on a motorcycle with the mystery woman as they cross the Vincent Thomas Bridge.  
"Are you hurt?" asks the woman. "have you been shot?"  
"My head's pounding from that lamp that hit me. What was going on?"  
"Do exactly as I say. Exactly. Don't move unless I say. Don't make a sound unless I say. Do you understand?"  
Kyle does not responsd, still reeling from that blow to the head.  
"Do you understand?" she yells.  
"Yes. Just tell me what the fuck that was all about."  
"I have been sent by TechCom to protect you. You've been targeted for termination."  
"By whom?"  
"By Skynet."  
  
Her twin pushes the gas pedal of the Army truck to the floor. She depresses the clutch and changes gears. She sees her target ahead.  
  
"Why me?" asks Kyle. "What have I done that makes Skynet want to kill me specifically."  
"You haven't done anything of importance," says the woman. "But you will...and soon."  
"I guess that thing is a terminator. She took a plasam shot to the back and stood up without a problem."  
"Yes, she is a terminator. Model X. As am I."  
"You are a terminator?"  
"I was the best available for the job. I went back to intercept. I know from official records that your unit was in Azusa on July 9, 2029."  
"Did General Connor send you?"  
"No, it was General Neil."  
"General Neil? Was Connor replaced?"  
"Connor retired on July 4....." The T-X looks behind; she sees a truck heading towards them. "She's right behind us. We need to evade her."  
Approaching the San Pedro end of the Vincent Thomas Bridge, she sees an exit ramp. she takes it, calculating that the truck only has a thirty percent chance that it will be able to follow them.  
She looks behind and sees the truck follow them. she drives through the streets, with the truck following her. she makes plenty of turns to ensure the truck can not catch up with them.  
"Wherre are we going?" asks Kyle.  
"To the ruins," replies his guardian. "We should be able to lose her there."  
They take a zigzag route through the streets, staying ahead of the truck but not being able to get clear away. The T-X checks the fuel gauge of the Kawasaki, and calculates that there is a eighty-seven percent chance that it will run out of fuel before the truck does. And she calculates that without fuel, there is only a twenty percent chance that she will succeed in her mission to protect Kyle. They continue driving through the deserted streets. They cut through the parking lot of a deserted mall. "there's the freeway," says Kyle.  
"The truck has a higher top speed than us," says the T-X. "We need to stay on surface streets where we can take advantage of our manueverability."  
"And if we run low on gas, we can just get gas from one of these gas stations."  
"Skynet confisdcated ther gas after the survivors were evacuated. I have an idea. They continue driving along the streets as the truck chases them. They then approach a bridge. The T-X takes out the plasma rifle and shoots at a gate. Then they ride down a ramp leading to the levee next to the river. They ride down and soon they are riding along the concrete surface of the Los Angeles River. "No way she can follow us here," says Kyle.  
He is proven wrong as he hears a crash. He looks behind and sees a truckflying off the bridge towards the river. It lands ion the concrete surface of the river with a thud. It bounces up and then lands on its tires.  
And it is still going.  
The T-X pushes the throttle on the Kawasaki as far as she can. the engine screams. And yet, the truck is still gaining on them. She aims the plasma rifle back and opens fire. One of the shots hits the front of the truck, and another shot hits the windshield. Still, the truck goes on. "Come on!" yells Kyle. "Can't this thing go any faster?"  
"Hold on tight!" yells the T-X. Kyle looks ahead and sees the wreckage of a car on the riverbed. They are barreling straight for it. Kyle wonders if she intends to jump over the wrecked car.  
She suddenly turns at the last moment, swerving around the car. Kyle looks and sees the truck turning to acoid the car. He hears a screech and a crunching sound as the truck collides with the car. The truck turns on its side and then slides along the bed of the river, sparks flying.  
"So much for your twin," says Kyle as they leave the scene of the wreck.  
"I calculate that the odds of my twin being destroyed in the collision is less than one percent," says the T-X. "She will not stop until you are dead."  
  
Kyle and the T-X hide in a tunnel under the ruins of downtown Los Angeles. He had once lived in these tunnels back when they were used as an outpost. Now here he is again as a terminator tends to his concussion.  
"Your odds of surviving your head injury are above ninety-nine percent," says his guardian. "So why is Skynet after me, specifically?" says Kyle. "I'm just a soldier in an armor regiment. If I die, someone else will take my place."  
"Soon you will participate in an important mission in the human campaign for survival. Your role in this war in crucial. Skynet calculates that taking you out of the picutre will increase its odds of exterminating the human race to ninety-two percent."  
"what is it that Skynet thinks I'm gonna do?"  
"I am not at liberty to diuscuss this. General Neil has instrcuted me not to tell you about what youn will do. You must find this oput for yourself."  
"Never heard of General Neil. Is he in Connor's staff?"  
"No. Connor retired ten years before Neil received his commission."  
"What?" Kyle checks his head. "am I hearing things."  
"Your hearing is not damaged, Kyle Reese. Listen. TechCom discovered one of Skynet's secret lab. Soldiers were sent to raid the place. They found the T-X- my twin. She went through the time displacement unit. After that, General Neil and I went to the site. After I was briefed of my mission parameters, I was wrapped in human flesh and then I went through the time displacement unit to July 9, 2029."  
"Are you from the future?" asks Kyle.  
"Yes. I departed at 2129 Central Daylight Time on July 20, 2069."  
"2069? Forty years from the future."  
"Affirmative."  
"So Skynet, and the war, is still going on forty years from now."  
"Yes."  
"Forty more years. Its' already gone on for twenty-five years. I mean, it doesn't seem that I did anything. I don't think I'm gonna deliver the coup de grace to Skynet if it's still around forty years from now."  
"On the contrary, your actions will lead to Skynet's eventual defeat. Skynet calculated that if the T-X that it sent after you fails, that it will have a less than one percent chance of exterminating humanity."  
"What do I do?"  
"My mission parameters forbid me from revealing your destiny."  
"So now what?"  
"We go to Crystal Peak to see John Connor." 


	10. Glimpse of the Future

July 10, 2029 

Kyle Reese sits in the passenger seat of a Humvee with the T-X behind the wheel. They drivve along Highway 14 north of Mojave. The Humvee takes a left turn onto a dirt road winding up the Sierra Nevada Mountains. It is dark, and the stars can be clearly seen, forming the constellations. "I hope this is worth it," says Kyle, checking the dashboard clock which indicates the time as 0203. "I mean, we just stole this vehicle."

"We are borrowing it. It will still be in possession of the Army after we are done."

"I don't think facing a general court-martial will be what I will do that takes down Skynet."

After a few minutes of driving along the dirt road, they come across a gate manned by MP's.  
"Identify yourself," says a military police sergeant.

"I'm Sergeant Kyle Reese," says Kyle, presenting his ID. "I am a terminator, Cyberdyne Systems Model X," says the T-X. "My mission is to protect Sergeant Kyle Reese. I seek an audience with General John Connor."

"Nobody who isn't from this base comes in without explicit permission," says the MP. "We have machine guns taimed at your vehicle. If you try to run us, you will be destroyed."

"Do we have to see Connor now?" asks Kyle. "He's gonna be real pissed."

"I am going to talk to them." The T-X broadcasts a radio message.

"We are receiving a message, ma'am," says an Army corporal sitting before the communications console in the Crystal Peak Command Center. "The ID code is from the Joint Chiefs."

"Put it through," says the duty officer, an Army captain. "This is Major Hastings from the Joint Chiefs," says the female voice. "I am parked right at the main gate. Patch me in to General Connor."

"Yes, ma'am."

The telephone rings in General Connor's private quarters. He picks up the phone.

"Hello?" he asks.

"Sorry to bother you, sir. There is a Major Hastings from the Joint Chiefs who wants to talk to you right away. We confirmed the message, sir."

"This had better be good."

"This is Major Hastings," says the T-X. "I am parked right outside the main gate. I have someone who wants to talk to you." 

"This is Sergeant Kyle Reese with an urgent message, sir," says Kyle.

"Reese? What are you doing?"

"Sir, uh, you're probably not going to believe this. You see, I was on liberty on board the city ship Manhattan when this lady tried to kill me. This other lady who's like her twin saved me. She says she's a terminator and she came from the future to protect..."

Connor hangs up the phone and then redials the number for the command center.

"Let them in," he says.

The MP tells the T-X and Kyle they can pass, and the T-X puts the Humvee in gear and drives to the mouth of Crystal Peak. Soon they are in a cavernous space where vehicles are parked. They go inside the elevator and go to the command level.

An MP greets them. "I've been ordered to escort you to the general's quarters," he says.

The terminator and Kyle follow the MP into the elevator, and he uses a security card to access one of the floors. After a few seconds, the elevator doors open, revealing the floor.

This floor has a more peronsal touch, with carpeted hallways. A sign indicates that this hallway has the quarters for the senior officers of Crystal Peak. They reach a set of doiuble doors. The T-X rings the doorbell.

The doors open, and General John Connor reveals himself, wearing an Army combat uniform. "Hello there," he says.

"You are General John Connor, United States Army, comander-in-chief of TechCom," says the T-X.

"That's me. Come on in."

Kyle enters the living room. It is nice, with a blue carpet, a wooden coffee table, couches, a big screen Sony color television and an Aiwa stereo system. "Nice place you got here."

"This was built to serve the President of the United States in the event he was evacuated here following a nuclear attack. Of course, this was built in the 1960's; the presidential quarters on the _Columbia _are much nicer. How about we sit at the kitchen."

Connor turns on the lights and they all sit down the dining table. They are joined by a red-haired woman.

"You are Lieutenant General Katherine Brewster, United States Air Force, chief of staff for TechCom," says the T-X.

"You seem to know me," says Brewster as she sits nervously, looking at someone she had not seen in twenty-five years.

"I have detailed files in my memory storage," replies the terminator. "You look exactly as you should this time."

"This time?" asks Kyle.

"Tell me what is going on," says Connor.

"On July 20, 2069, TechCom intelligence discovered a secret base under the control of Skynet, located in a warehouse in Cleveland, Ohio. A strike force raided the warehouse and saw the time displacement unit. They were unable to stop the T-X from going through. Computer analysts learned that Skynet had sent a T-X to July 9, 2029 to terminate Sergeant Kyle Reese. I was sent by General Vincent Neil to intercept and protect Reese."

"Okay," says Connor. "You need me to keep Reese sequestered in this base."

"The T-X will no doubt try to sneak in here. She would deduce that Reese would seek refuge. I have a better idea. It has a eighty-two percent chance of success, while Reese's chances of surviving if he stays here is forty-four percent."

"Let's hear the plan."

And so the T-X tells Connor and Brewster her plan.

"I guess you'd better be going," says Brewster.

"See you again, Reese," says Connor. "And don't get killed. That's an order."

"Yes, sir," says Kyle as he salutes.

Kyle sits ij the Humvee as the T-X drives. The sun is up now, and there is a clear blue sky overhead.

"We're heading into Skynet territory," says Kyle. "This isn't exactly the way to protect me."

"Trust me," rpelies the T-X. "I made the calculations."

She parks the Humvee. They go out and they see a cluster of builkdings surrounding by a barbed-wire fence.  
It is a military base.

A Skynet military base.

"I suppose we're just going to knock on their door and ask them for a ride," says Kyle.

"That is correct," she replies.

"This is insane!"

"I made the calculations."

The T-X then removes her blouse and skirt, revealing her naked form. Kyle stares at her, speechless.

"I never thought a terminator could be so hot," he says when he regains his speech. The T-X takes a knife and slices the skin down from her neck to her belly button. Blood flows out of the wound, followed by a silvery liquid substance.

"I was encased in flesh so I could go through the time displacement unit," she says. "I no longer need it."

"What is happening?" asks Kyle as she sees the terminator covered in the silvery substance.

"I have a coating of a mimetic polyalloy- an emulsion of nanobots in liquid metal. The nanobots generate electric fields to give it shape and color."

And soon, the beautful, naked woman is replaced with a terminator, a T-600. "Let's go," she says.

They walk to the base, and a T-600 standing guard looks at her and the human. It raises its plasma rifle, and the T-X touches it. "It is now under my control," she says. "I can control other machines. I will now use this T-600's wireless modem to reprogram the other terminators in this base."

She and Kyle walk inside. None of the terminators do anything.

There are two buldings in the base. The main buolding is where the terminators are garrisoned, and the other is where the helicopters are stored. They go to the building where the helicopters are.

Two terminators stand guard with the Huey helicopter. the T-X injects them with nanobots, and they comply. They refuel the helicopter and inspect the engine. "Our ride is ready," says the T-X.

she and Kyle take their seats. The roof of the helicopter hangar opens, and the T-X starts the engine. Soon the helicopter rises into the air, and they fly out over the San Joaquin Valley.

"I was wondering why Skynet went through all the trouble of building a time machine to get me," says Kyle.

"By 2069, Skynet was reduced to a few scattered strongholds in isolated areas of the world," says the T-X. "It had almost no offensive military capability. It's only option was to lie low while it gathered the resources necessary to make a time displacement unit."

"So we won."

"Yes."

The helicopter continues flying. Soon they are over the Pacific Ocean. They continue flying over the calm, blue expanse until they see a fleet of ships- an aircraft carrier and some destroyers.

"Here we are," says the T-X. "the _U.S.S. Prometheus_, a nuclear-powered semisubmersible attack aircraft carrier. It was launched from San Diego Naval Station on July 24, 2004-Judgment Day. It was used to support the evacuation of the United States, and participated in the battle to maintain oceanic superiority. Irt was decommissioned in 2040, and is a museum in San Diego Bay as of 2069."

"Thanks for the history lesson," says Kyle.

The T-X puts on a headset. "This is Alpha Tango 347 to Prometheus Tower," she says. "We are requesting permission to land. I repeat, this is Alpha Tango 347 to Prometheus Tower. Request permission to land."  
"Request granted," says a male voice.

The Huey helicopter approahces the flight deck of the Prometheus and slowly descends. Its landing gears touch down. Sailors rush in to lock down the helicopter. Kyle and the T-X step out.  
"I am Chief Pollard," says man in a Navy jumper. "The captain will want to see you. Come with me."

Kyle is led below decks. The first thing he notices is that the main corridors on each deck is wide, not like corridors on the decks of other Navy ships. He sees sailors walking back and forth along the corrdiors, tending to their duties. They eneter a room marked Ward Room. Kyle sees a man in a Navy uniform with short black curly hair. He salutes."I am Sergeant Kyle Reese, United Startes Army," he says.

"I am Captain Daniel Dyson, United States Navy," replies the Navy captain. "Crystal Peak told me you were coming."

"Did they tell you why?"

"No, just that someone is arriving and we are to sequester him. That would be you, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Captain, a terminator was sent from the future to terminate Kyle Reese. I was sent to intercept."

"What does she look like?"

"She looks like me. But like me, she can change her outward appearance." Her skin turns silver, and then goes back to flesh-color. She has the exact appearance of Kyle Reese.

"Amazing," says Dyson. "I'll have guest quarters prepared for you. Have some breakfast."

"Thank you, sir," says Kyle. "By the way, if you do not mind, where were you on Judgment Day?"

"I was in San Diego," he says. "I remember hearing this explosion. I wondered what happened and I looked outside and saw a mushroom clouid. I thought it was an accident at first. Later on, we had to evascuate because of the fallout. It was a couple of months later when the machines attacked. My family was evacuated on board ships. I later joined the Navy, became an aviator, and two years ago took command of this ship. I was lucky Skynet was off-target on its strike on San Diego."

"It wasn't luck, sir. Skynet needed the military bases in San Diego intact. It detonated the bomb a few miles away so it would contaminate the place with fallout and force an evacuation, allowing it to take those military bases with little resistance."

"You have a perceptive mind, Reese." Dyson eats his scrambled eggs. "You have full use of our recreational facilities while you are on board."

"Thank you, sir."

For the next few hours, Kyle Reese makes use of the recreational facilities on board the Prometheus. He goes to the ship's library and reads a couple of books. He watches movies on DVD. He works out in the ship's gymnasium.

The sun sinks below the horizon, and Kyle has his dinner in the guest quarters. He had to admit that Navy cooks can cook. He eats his roasted chicken and vegetables. And he gulps it down with water. He can hear fighter jets launch from the ship's catapult.

"Five. Four. Three. Two. One," says the T-X, standing guard inside his room. "What happened?" asks Kyle.

"A crippling blow had just been dealt to Skynet," she replies. "The Resistance took down the defensive grid.

Skynet has been shattered."

"Shattered?"

"Skynet runs on millions of computer servers across the world. The Resistance took down the infrastructure that allows its computers to communicate."

"And what role did I play in this?"

"You will fight one more battle, an important battle."

"What battle is that?"

"My program parameters forbid me from telling you about your future."

"Come on," Kyle says teasingly. "Tell me."  
"Vocal commands can not reset the parameters of my programming."

Kyle lies down on the bed, his head on the pillow. "Okay, can you tell me what happens to John Connor?"

"Connor serves for three more years at TechCom," says the T-X. "On July 4, 2032, he retired from the service. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2034, and is still serving there. He is the author of a best-selling autobiography, No Fate But What We Make.

"He must be at least eighty years old."

"He will be eighty-four years old at the time of my departure. All available records at the time indicated that he was in good health when I left."

"So, what's the future like?"

"I am kept in storage until I am taken out for a performance review or until I am assigned for a mission like this one. TechCom keeps a few terminators in hand, all under the control of the commanding general. We can only be programmed via a cable network connection."

"To protect you from hackers." Kyle knows this was not the answer he was looking for. "What is the population of the world?"

"4.2 billion estimated, according to the CIA handbook."

"And the U.S. population?"

"As of the 2060 census, seventy million people. Population is projected to reach ninety million by 2070."

"And the economy? Trade?"

"The Gross Domestic Product is estimated to be three trillion twenty four billion dollars. Goods worth eight hundred billion dollars are traded with foreign countries."

"I see." Kyle sees a picture in his mind, a picture of a vibrant civilization, which rose from the ashes of the war with the machines, rebuilt by people who escaped to the sea or the mountains, or even from the death camps.  
"Go to sleep, Kyle," says the T-X. "You will need your rest."

The various Skynet servers scattered across the world attempt connections with each other. They calculate their probability of success. Most of the Skynet programs calculate that trhe odds of success are less than one percent.

One Skynet program running in one server comes to a different calculation.

The odds are ninety-six percent in favor of success.


	11. Battle Between the Twins

July 11, 2029  
  
"No man should know too much about his own future," the blond-haired man on the Sony color television screen says.  
Sergeant Kyle Reese sits down on the chair in the video room, weatching the movie Back to the Future. The movie, which was in theaters in 1985, is about a treenage boy who travels back in time and sees his parents in high school. It takes about two hours before he finishes the movie.  
He looks behind him and sees the T-X. "Enjoying the movie?' she asks.  
"Yeah, it's real interesting," he says. :It just occurred to me. What if I miss my destiny?"  
"Explain."  
"You say that I am going to take part in an important battle- so important that Skynet had to send your twin here to kill me. If I am stuck on this boat here and I miss my destiny, then Skynet wins."  
"It is safest for you here," says the T-X.  
"And how long must I stay here? I'm supposed to do something important, and I don't think that something important is staying here."  
"Trust me, Kyle," says his guardian.  
"You know, I always wondered what it would be like to travel through time. I mean, here you are, from the future, a bright furture I might add. I didn't even think time travel was possible."  
"Time travel is fact."  
"Think about it. You could visit any era. You could see the pyramids being built in Egypt, or how about Rome under the Ceasars?"  
"It would be a one-way trip. The time displacement unit stays in 2069. And you can not bring anything with you; you have to go through naked."  
"Still, there is one person whom I would love to meet."  
"And who would that be?" asks the T-X.  
"Sarah Connor."  
"Who?"  
"She is the mother of John Connor."  
"Ah, yes. Connor wrote about her in his autobiography. He dedicated the book to her."  
"What did he write about her in his book?"  
"She had trained him in the use of weapons and military tactics when they were living in Costa Rica. She was working for a mercenary. He had thought that people lived by flying around and blowing shit up."  
"Was Sarah in the Army or something?"  
"Sarah Connor had no military experience before 1984, when she moved south to Costa Rica to join a mercenary company there. She learned arms training even as she was pregnant. She later moved back to the U.S. in early 1985 to give birth to John Connor and take some rest due to childbirth. Then she moved back to Costa Rica where she continued to be a mercenary."  
"So what happened to her?" asks Kyle.  
"In 1992, she tried to destroy the Cyberdyne Systems factory in Santa Clara. She was delcared insane and was sent to the Pescadero State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. She later escaped from the hoispital and hid out. She died in a hospital in Ensenada, Baja California Sur, on September 11, 1997."  
"it was from leukemia. Connor told me that when I frst met him nine years ago. He gave me a picture."  
"Do you still have it?"  
"No, it was burned up when Skynet attacked the Los Angeles outpost." Kyle paces around the video room. "It was just two days ago that we took Los Angeles."  
"Next week, the Resistance will invade the Great Plains," says the T-X. "With Skynet's forces unable to coordinate, the Resistance scores an easy victory with few casualties."  
"Well, maybe I should go have lunch," says Kyle.  
"I have a message for you, from the future. You are about to face the most difficult mission, a mission that will define your life. You will be fighting against all odds. But you must be strojng, and believe in yourself. Everyone is counting on you."  
"Who gave you that message?" asks Kyle.  
"It was Senator John Connor," says the T-X. "He was there at the lab when they sent me."  
"How did he know you'd be there?" asks Kyle curiously.  
"We told him yesterday."  
"Oh."  
  
Admiral Thomas Wright of the British Royal Navy sits down at the conference table in the conference room in Crystal Peak. He faces his Russian colleague, General Sergei Gugarin.  
"I wonder what John is up to?" asks Wright in his thick British accent.  
"Who knows?" asks Gugarin.  
Then the wood-paneled doors open, and General John Connor walks inside, escorted by his aides. He presses a button on the intercom. "We're ready," says the Resistance leader. "Send the video to Conference Room 1."  
"Yes, sir," says a voice from the Crystal Peak Command Center. An image shows on the video screen, an image of a middle-aged man in camofluage. His rank insignia identifies him as a major general. "Sirs," says the general. "We have important and disturbing news. We just took Yuma Base five hours ago. The base is secure from any machine activity. Our hackers dpownloasded the data from mthe mainframes, and here is what we found."  
"Summarize," says Connor.  
the general gives his summary.  
"Impossible," says General Chen of the People's Army of China.  
"Total bullshit," says Admiral Wright. "Does he expect us to believe that?"  
"It's worth looking into," says Connor. "We shall all go to Yuma right now."  
  
Sergeant Jessica Spencer sits behind the desk in her office. As General Connor's secretary, she keeps tracks of his appointments and paperwork.  
the door to her office opens, and she sees the general himself entering.  
"I thought you were going to Yuma," she says.  
"I just need to get something from my office," says Connor. "Continue on."  
"Yes, sir."  
Connor goes into the office and turns on the Dell personal computer. He looks through the notes. Then he picks up the phone and dials the number for the command center.  
"This is Connor," he says. "Patch me in to the Prometheus."  
After handing up the phone, Connor leaves the office, not even acknowledging Sergeant Spencer. He continues walking, passing some soldiers who salute him. He then presses a button to call the elevator, and the elevator doors open.  
As the elevator ascends, Connor's skin changes to a silver color. Then it changes back.  
When the elevator doors open on the main level, a blond-haired woman is revealed.  
  
Explosions rock from the shelling of the airport that Skynet uses as an air base. Its fighters had been deployed to intercept the Resistance fighters. The Skynet mainframe in the air base calculates a seventy-two percent chance that the humans will take the base. The T-X knows exactly what time that the humans enter the air base. It is not her mission to defend the air base. She goes to one of the hangars. There are two C-12 transport planes inside, used for airborne operations. She gets into the cockpit of the C-12. Within minutes, she takes off even as the runway is destroyed behind her. Minutes after takeoff, she arrives at the coordinates of the Prometheus, with the sun setting below the Pacific Ocean.  
She opensthe door, and then jumps out. She is in a free fall for a few seconds, with the ocean rushing up to meet her. Then she deploys the jet pack, slowing her descent. she calculates the trajectory which will allow her to touch down on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier.  
  
Captain Daneil Dyson is having supper in the ward room when a seaman interrupts him.  
"Captain Dyson," says the seaman. "Sorry to bother you, sir, but you have an urgent message from General Connor."  
Dyson goes to the phone in the ward room. "Send the communication here," he commands.  
"This is Connor," says General Connor. "Is Kyle Reese still on board?"  
"Yes, he is here along with that bodyguard of his."  
"Prepare one of your planes and have it fly to the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos. I have a plane there waiting for him."  
"Yes, sir."  
Dyson and two sailors walk tpo the guest quarters. As they expected, Kyle and the T-X are there.  
"General Connor summons you," says the captain. "My air wing is preparing a plane for you."  
"It is time, Kyle," says the T-X. "time for your destiny."  
"Okay," says Kyle.  
They all walk through the corridors of Prometheus. They eneter an elevator and press the button for the hangar deck. a few seconds later, thety emerge in hangar deck. In the hangar deck is the Navy transport jet. The pilot comes out to greet them.  
"Wait," says the T-X. The flesh of her hand withdraws to reveal the endoskeleton underneath. It then changes.  
She pijnts her hand at the pilot, and a plasma bolt shoots out, hitting the pilot.  
"What the?" asks Dyson, shocked that the T-X shot one of his pilots.  
The pilot gets up. It then morphs into a T-X.  
"It's her!" yells Kyle.  
"We'd better draw her away from the hangar," says the T-X.  
So she and Kyle and Dyson run through the corridors of the aircraft carrier as the T-X's twin pursues them. They fire plasma shots at each other. They go through corridors and stairs. Some of the sailors get caught in the crossfire. They turn a corner and stop.  
"Is there another way up to the hangar deck?" asks the T-X.  
"Yeah," says Captain Dyson.  
"Take him up there. I'll hold my twin here."  
Kyle and Dyson both go down the corridor even as the T-X's twin appears. The T-X opens fire with her plasma rifle. Her twin fires back. and hits the T-X. Then she closes in.  
The T-X grabs the twin and the battle becomes close and personal. the T-X slams her twin through a set of double doors marked Power Room.  
The power room has control panels and circuit breakers and electric generators. A window provides a view of the nuclear breeder reactor that powers the ship. The two T-X's continue their fight in here; the sailors assigned to the power room flee.  
  
Sergeant Kyle Reese and Captain Daniel Dyson make it to the hangar deck where the Navy transport plane awaits them. They both enter and sit in the cockpit. Kyle looks adn sees the dead body of a Navy pilot.  
"Never mind him," says Dyson. He puts on a headset. "Air Boss, this is the captain. "Clear everything for a takeoff."  
"Copy that."  
A lift lifts the plane to the hangar deck. Dyson does a last minute check on the instruments and gauges. He flips switches to turn the engine on. The plane taxis to the catapault.  
"Get ready, Reese," says Dyson. "Brace yourself."  
The jet engines scream, and the catapault launches the plane into the air. Kyle feels himself being squeezed back due to the sudden acceleration.He nearly blacks out.  
"What was that?" asks the soldier.  
"It was takeoff," replies Dyson. "We're in the air now."  
Two F-14 Tomcats are launched from the aircraft carrier to accompany their captain on its flight. Dyson adjusts the radio controls. "Crystal Peak, this is Dyson from the Prometheus. Patch me in to General Connor."  
"Connor here," a male voice says.  
"Sir, I'm in the air and I have Reese with me."  
"Good. Land at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos."  
"Copy that," replies the captain. "ETA is in twenty minutes."  
  
The two T-X's are still in battlew in the Prometheus's power room, with fists and feet flying and collisions to the ground and wall. The two of them are too evenly matched, being the same model. They throw powerful piunches and kicks that would kill a human.  
Suddenly, one of them smahes the other into the circuit breaker. Spraks fly and then the entire ship goes dark. The control rods of the nuclear reactor drop and stop the nuclear reaction. Seconds later, the red emergency lights come on, powered by 12-volt lead-acid batteries. The skin of the T-X that smahsed into the circuit breaker turns silver and melts away into a puddle of liquid metal. The endoskeleton is revealed in its glory. The other T-X then walks away from the power room.  
  
"i can see the coastline," says Kyle, making out the dark shapes.  
"We're almost there," says Dyson. He looks at the radar screen, and sees the signals for the two fighters covering him. A third signal approaches. "Stagecoach One One Six to Unidentified Aircraft," says Dyson. "Identify yourself."  
"Let me take a look, sir," says one of the F-14 pilots. After a few seconds, he says, "It's one of ours."  
"Identify yourself," says Dyson.  
He suddenly has a bad feeling about this as the signal for the unidentified F-14 draws closer and closer. He makes a shapr turn to the left. At that instant, he sees a missile fly by.  
"Holy shit," he says.  
"It's the T-X!" yells Kyle. "The one that's trying to kill me."  
"Stagecoach, this is Prometheus," says the bridge officer. "We detected an unauthorized launch."  
"I know," says Dyson.  
"We'll cover you, sir," says one of the Navy fighter pilots. "Bug out northwest."  
Suddenly, a warning light comes on.  
"Our port engine's on fire!" yells Dyson.  
"You took a hit," says the F-14 pilot. "I'm coming after the bandit. I have a lock. Fox Three!"  
Kyle can see the F-14 fighter. A missile follows it. In a few seconds, the missile will destroy the plane and the terminator after his life.  
The missile explodes prematurely; the T-X must have used countermeasures. "She's right behind you!" yells the F-14 pilot.  
"I can't shake her!" yells the other pilot. "Arrrrrrgh!"  
"Halo Two is down," says the remaining F-14 pilot. "She's right behind me," says Dyson.  
Kyle looks and sees the blip approaching them from behind, approaching for the kill. Then it veeers off. She had him in his sights.  
"I'm back!" yells a female voice.  
"It's you!" yells Kyle into his headset.  
"I'll cover for you," says the T-X.  
Kyle sees one of the fighters chasing the other, firing plasma shots. The other fighter keeps evading.  
"Just keep her busy," says Dyson.  
The T-X continues chasing after her counterpart, her metal endoskeleton reflecting the cockpit lights. She scores a hit on one of the wings on her twin's F-14. Then the F-14 disappears from view. She looks at the radar screen.  
"I lost her," she says.  
  
Her twin maunevers the F-14 tomcat towards the Navy jet transporting Kyle Reese. She calculates a fifty percent chance of success. As she moves closer, she clculates a greater chance of success. She can see the trasnpoirt jet in her sights. She calculates a ninety-five percent chance of success.  
Then she looks up.  
  
The T-X reacquired her target, which is right behind Kyle's plane. She does a qwuick calculation.  
"You are terminated!" she yells.  
  
The F-14 Tomcat flies just a few yards behind the Navy transport jet. Suddenly, another F-14 Tomcat goes into a dive and collides with the F-14. The collision creates a fantastic explosion, scattering airplane - and T-X- parts over the Pacific Ocean. "You're clear, sir," yells the remaining F-14 pilot.  
"Not quite," says Dyson.  
  
Captain Dyson looks at the altimeter.  
"We keep losing altitude," he says. "I don't think we can make it to Los Alamitos."  
"Crystal Peak, this is Reese," Kiyle says. "We took some damage and I don't think we'll be able to make it."  
"Copy that," says Connor. "You can't land at Los Alamitos?"  
"I don't think we can make it, sir," says Dyson.  
"Talk to Los Alamitos. We just took it from Skynet yesterday. I'll have Crystal Peak connect you to the garrison there."  
"This is the Los Al garrison," a male voice says. "This is Stagecoach One One Six," says Dyson. "Our plane is damaged and I don't think we can make it there. Do you have an alternate ladning site."  
"Let me see....Yes, you can land on PCH."  
"What?"  
"Pacific Coast Highway. There is a straight stretch of it next to Bolsa Chica State Beach, between Huntington Beach and Sunset Beach. you're close by."  
"Okay," says Dyson. He turns the plane northwest. "it's too dark," says Kyle. "We have no choice," says Dyson.  
They watch as the ground comes closer and closer. Dyson concentrates one the dim outlines, hoping that he is looking at a highway and not a canal. He rediuces the speed and engages the flaps. The plane approaches closer and closer to the ground. Dyson checks the altimeter and puts down the landing gear. It continues its descent. His hart races.  
And then, at the last seconds, he pulls back on the yoke. The main landing gears touch down first. Dyson then pushes forward, and the nose landing gear makes contact.  
The jet now taxis down Pacific Coast Highway. Dyson engages the reverse thrusters, and the starbpard engine thrusts forward to the max. Ahead, Dyson and Kyle can see the outline of buildings. They both depress the rudder pedals. The plane slows down; it does not slow down fast enough.  
"Brace yourself!" yells Dyson. Kyle does exactly that as the building pon the street corner gets closer and closer. And then, the nose of the plane strikes the building, causing the wall to collapse.  
Kyle pats his chest. "We're alive," he says.  
"Let's get down," says Dyson.  
The two men get down onto the sidewalk. They look up and see a helicopter approaching them. It descends a few yards away from them and a soldier comes out.  
"Let's go," the soldier says. 


	12. Origin and Fate Meet

July 11, 2029

The UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter lands on a taxiway in the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base. Sergeant Kyle Reese steps out.

"Are you Kyle Reese?" asks a soldier.

"Yeah," says Kyle.

"Get in the plane."

Kyle sees a small jet. He steps inside and sits down on a seat in the cabin. It is quite comfortable.

"Excuse me," says Kyle. "Where are we going?"

"We're going to Yuma, Arizona," says the pilot. "General Connor is over there waiting for you."

"What does he want with me?"

"Don't know. My orders are to bring you to Yuma."

Minutes later, the jet takes off. Kyle ponders the future, the future that the T-X told him about. He wonders what part he will have in it. He figures that he will soon find out before the night is over.

After about an hour, the plane touches down at an airport on the outskirts of Yuma, Arizona. Kyle gets out and the warm desert air greets him.

"Over here!" yells soldier. Kyle sees a Humvee and he gets into the passenger seat.

It is only a few minutes before the Humvee enters the Yuma Proving Grounds. Kyle can see the wreckage of Skynet's tanks. Ahead he can see a huge building.

The Humvee stops right next to the building. The soldier escorts Kyle inside. He presses a button for the elevator. The elevator doors open and they enter the elevator.

"This was once a research facility before Skynet took over," says the soldier. "General Connor and the others are down in the main lab."

"What were they researching?" asks Kyle.

"You'll find out."

The elevator doors open, and they step out into a lobby. The lobby has some chairs and a window. Kyle notices a door with a card reader. Apparently, the door was cut away with a hot torch.

They walk through the hallway, their footsteps echoing in the steel floor.

"Here it is," says the soldier.

Kyle goes through a doorway and sees a bunch of people in the room, high-ranking officers and their aides.

"Sergeant Kyle Reese, reporting as ordered, sir," he says to General John Connor as he salutes.

"I want to show you this," says Connor. "Take a look around."

Kyle looks around and sees a sterile-loooking room with all sorts of electronic equipment. In the back is a ten-foot-diameter cylinder lying with its axis parallel to the floor. The cylinder sits upon shiny brass blocks.

Kyle also notices two identical-looking naked men.

"What is this?" asks Kyle.

"This is the temporal research lab," says one of the naked men.

"Temporal research?"

"The United States Army conducted research into teleportationl. During the war, Skynet took over and continued the research. It accidentally discovered it can transport ob jects through time as well as spaceIt built a time displacement unit back there, and its first successful test was at 1004 local time."

"This is a time machine?" asks Kyle, putting his hand on the cylinder. "We could travel through time?"

"Precisely," says the naked man. "After the initial test, Skynet sent three terminators back to three different time periods for the purpose of eliminating John Connor."

"My God," whispers Kyle, remembering his own encounter with a terminator from the future.

"My mission is to travel back to 1995 and intercept the T-1000 sent to terminate John Connor."

"The other two terminators went back to 1863 and 1984 to eliminate my ancestors," says Connor. "We need to intercept them as well."

"Wait," says Kyle. "If one of them went to 1984, then he would be after your mother."

"That's right," says Connor.

"Then I want to go to 1984," says Kyle. "I want to go back to protect Sarah Connor."

"That's insane," says Admiral Wright. "You won't stand a chance against a terminator. It is better if we bring one of our terminators here and send him to 1984."

"Sir, this is my destiny," says Kyle. "This is the destiny the T-X told me about. My destiny is with Sarah Connor."

"You have permission to go back to 1984 and save my mother," says Connor.

"Who knows how that would affect a human?" objects Wright. "He might come back with no memory. He might go insane. He might even arrive in 1984 thinking he has to kill your mum."

"It will be all right," says Connor.

"Thanks for the pep talk, sir," says Reese.

"Then it is settled," says Connor. "Sergeant Kyle Reese will be sent back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor." He looks at Kyle. "I have a message I want to give you."

"What, sir?" asks Kyle.

"Sarah, thank you. For your courage through the dark years. I can't help you with what you must soon face, except to tell you that the future is not set... there is no such thing as Fate, but what we make for ourselves by our own will. You must be stronger than you imagine you can be. You must survive, or I will never exist. Do you remember?"

"Say that again, sir?"

"Sarah thank you."

"Sarah thank you."

"For your courage through the dark years."

"For your courage through the dark years."

"I can't help you with what you must soon face."

"There is no such thing as Fate, but what we make for ourselves by our own will."

"There is no such thing as Fate, but what we make for ourselves by our own will."

"You must be stronger than you imagine you can be."

"You must be stronger than you imagine you can be."

"You must survive, or I will never exist."

"You must survive, or I will never exist."

Connor has Kyle repeat it over and over again.

"I think you remember. Now let's activate the time displacement unit."

"Time displacement unit ready," says a technician typing on a laptop computer connected to the controls. "Destination time is April 14, 1863."

"That is me," says one of the naked men. He walks to the cylinder.

"Aren't you going to bring something?" asks Kyle.

"You go in naked," says the terminator. "The event horizon interacts with the bioelectric field to generate time displacement."

"Oh," says Kyle. He remembers that the T-X told him she arrived in 2029 naked.

The terminator steps into the time displacement unit and walks in. Kyle watches.

Then the man disappears in a flash of light, with electrical sparks flying between the edge of the cylinder.

"Now set it for 1995," says Connor.

"Destination time is June 10, 1995," says the technician.

Connor approaches the 1995-bound terminator. "Hasta la vista, baby," he says.

The terminator walks into the time dispalcement unit. Soon he disappears into the past, his departure marked by lightning.

"Now to send Reese to 1984," says Connor.

The technicians types into the keyboard. "Destination time is May 12, 1984."

Kyle strips of all of his clothes, appearing naked before everybody. He walks to the time displacement unit and looks at General Connor.

"Good luck, Sergeant," says Connor.

Kyle gives a salute, and Connor returns his salute.

Kyle then walks toweards the end of the cylinder. He is only a few steps from 1984. He steps closer and closer to the place where origin and fate collide.

Then he sees a bright white light. Feels pain.

He concentrates, concentrates on the message Connor gave him.

"Sarah, thank you. For your courage through the dark years. I can't help you with what you must soon face, except to tell you that the future is not set... there is no such thing as Fate, but what we make for ourselves by our own will. You must be stronger than you imagine you can be. You must survive, or I will never exist."

And then he is thrown forty-five years back in time. 


End file.
